Home Away
by alwaysALOHA
Summary: When Danny gets a personal heritage assignment for school, he learns some shocking things about his family that flip his world upside-down. No PP.
1. Prologue

A/N: I hope that you enjoy this newest plot bunny, because it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. Ignores _Phantom Planet._

Disclaimer: I in no way own Danny Phantom or any other recognizable thoughts or ideas.

…Casper High School…

Riiiinnnnnngggg!

The hallways quickly filled with shouting and laughing teenagers as they vacated the small classrooms and the school itself for the weekend.

Loud as these students were they were not quite loud enough to drown out the triumphant shout of one particular black-haired, blue-eyed classmate.

"YES! I MADE IT THROUGH A WHOLE DAY OF SCHOOL!" Danny Fenton shouted excitedly, his two closest friends laughing hysterically on either side of him.

Mr. Lancer shook his head from the doorway of his classroom. He should reprimand the boy for shouting but really didn't have the heart to do it. After all, Danny Fenton hadn't finished one continuous day of school in nearly two years – he deserved to celebrate this seemingly small victory.

His cell phone started ringing on his desk and his grin widened, having no doubt who was calling. This was going to be fun.

"Hello, Maddie," he answered, not bothering to hide his amusement.

"…"

"No, nothing is wrong – "

"…"

"Because he made it through the entire day without one tardy or absence."

"…"

Now the teacher outwardly laughed. "I don't believe he's being overshadowed."

"…?"

"Considering he just shouted '_I made it through a whole day of school_'? Yes, I'm quite sure."

"!"

Lancer laughed as he held the phone two feet from his ear to avoid hearing loss from the celebratory shrieks on the other end.

...hallway…

Danny winced, but smiled as he chuckled, "I think my mom just found out."

This sent his friends, who had just regained their composure, into fresh peals of laughter.

"What's so funny, you guys?" Jazz giggled as she joined the trio by her little brother's locker.

Danny grinned proudly and there was a spark of joy in his eyes as he told her, "I made it through a whole day of school without so much as a tardy – AND I stayed awake!"

"That's great, Danny! I'm so proud of you!" Jazz smiled. "Would you like me to drive all of you home?"

"Thanks, Jazz, that would be great!" Danny smiled.

"Definitely better than walking right now," Sam commented with a shiver. It was, after all, the middle of January.

Tucker snickered unexpectedly and Sam raised an eyebrow.

"You're not still laughing about me acting like an idiot are you? Danny asked, baffled.

It was Tucker's turn to look incredulous.

"You mean you guys didn't see that?" the techno-geek asked, snickering some more.

"See _what?_" Danny and Sam demanded.

Now Jazz was holding back her laughter, though she was more successful.

"Dash," she answered, tilting her head in the direction of the quarterback who, at the moment, was edging along the opposite wall watching for any sudden movement from Danny.

Danny bit his fist to keep from laughing too loudly and scaring the poor jock more; he had been getting more and more nervous as the day wore on. Once he had gained control of himself, he decided to take pity on the jock.

"Dash," Danny called, unable to keep his amusement out of his voice. Startled, Dash looked at him. "Relax. I'm not overshadowed, a ghost in disguise, or a cl-clone. I'm just having a good day.'

Dash blinked a few times before scowling at Danny's amused smirk and stalking off.

Jazz was about to ask her brother why he stumbled over the word "clone" when someone knocked past her. It turned out to be none other than Paulina Sanchez. The popular Latina stomped angrily out through the school doors without even pausing to apologize.

"What's with her?" Tucker asked, surprised.

"What rock have you been hiding under" Sam returned sarcastically. "Paulina's been in a bad mood all week – no one knows why."

"Huh. Weird," Tucker commented mildly. The group walked casually out to the parking lot together.

"So, Danny, how were your classes?" Jazz inquired.

"All my classes were … longer than I thought they were," Danny answered, causing his friends to smirk. "Oh, we did get this personal heritage project in history. I'm thinking that with this lull in ghost activity, I'd do my report on Bairdan."

"Bairdan? I've never even heard of it," Tucker commented.

"Yeah, it's kind of a small country," Danny said. He turned to his sister. "I was thinking of giving the finished project to Mom as a surprise."

"Why?" Sam asked curiously.

"Oh, that's right, you guys don't know," Danny muttered and then looked back up at his friends as he tried to think about how to explain. "Well, you know how my mom sort of has an accent? Like, a really mild one?"

"Yeah?" the two confirmed.

"Well, that's because Mom was born in Bairdan – and actually lived there until she went off to college," the halfa explained.

"Our grandma is actually American, so our mom's an American citizen, anyway," Jazz added. "I'm proud of you, Little Brother. I think Mom would really like that."

"Thanks, but, can you not tell her? I don't want her to be disappointed if, you know, something comes up," he requested as his sister turned into Sam's driveway.

"No problem," Jazz agreed. "Here's your stop, Sam. We'll see you soon."

Sam waved goodbye as the older girl pulled out. After dropping Tucker off at his house, the Fenton siblings rode home in a comfortable silence and were not in the least surprised to see their parents waiting at the front door, grinning from ear to ear.

….

A/N: Yes, there was a point to this chapter. Anywho, what did you think? Why is Mr. Lancer on a first-name basis with Mrs. Fenton? Do everyone's reactions make sense? Why was Paulina so angry? And, most importantly, what will Danny learn about Bairdan? Tell me in a review and as alwaysALOHA!


	2. ReSearching

A/N: Hehehe…

Disclaimed.

…Amity Park, 2 days later…

"Why don't you just ask Mom?" Jazz asked as she put down her textbook, sure her little brother was within seconds of blasting his computer to smithereens.

Danny gave his computer one last hateful glare before turning to face his sister.

"Because if I do that then she'll be even more disappointed if I don't finish – and knowing my luck…," he trailed off, frustrated once again by the complexity of his life. Jazz gave him a sympathetic smile.

Danny sighed. "The biggest problem is that almost everything that comes up is a travel site that only talks about how beautiful and peaceful it is."

"Maybe Sam and Tucker can help. I mean, it's not cheating if they're just helping you gain access to better sites or books," Jazz suggested.

Danny just shook his head. "I don't know, Jazz. They have their own projects to work on. Besides, the teachers expect_ me _to turn in something half-finished, but Sam and Tucker can usually scrape something up."

Jazz flinched at the bitterness in the younger teen's voice. She knew he didn't regret his decisions but that didn't make facing the consequences any easier.

"You can at least ask them for tips."

"Why don't _you_ give me tips?" the halfa grumpily replied.

At this, Jazz looked at him apologetically.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, you _can't _because this is a _'unique situation' _and you're afraid that if you helped more actively, it would _'taint' _your _'observations'_. Did I miss anything?"

Jazz cringed sheepishly. "I'm using this for my thesis."

Danny scowled but it didn't last as he sighed in exasperation.

"_Fine,_ I'll ask Tucker," he chuckled.

…Half an hour later…

"The cavalry has arrived!" Tucker announced as he and Sam walked into Danny's room, having been let into the house by Mrs. Fenton.

"Thanks for coming, Tuck," Danny smiled. "Sam? What're you doing here?"

"Tucker called. I'm actually finished with my project, so I thought I'd help," Sam explained.

"You're finished already?" Tucker looked at her incredulously.

"My grandma lives with me, remember? I just asked her and used that as a starting point."

"You're both lifesavers!" Danny told them gratefully.

"Literally," Tucker added with a smirk.

"And don't you forget it!" Sam grinned.

Jazz just shook her head at their antics. It still amazed her after two years of being in on the big secret how they could stay so carefree – how they could just act like the kids that they were still.

The trio divided the work with practiced efficiency and quickly got to work. Admittedly, they talked more than they researched, but the time spent was filled with laughter. Nevertheless, even with Box Ghost interrupting, they seemed to be making progress.

Until Tucker brought everything to a halt with one hurt-filled phrase: "_Dude,_ why didn't you _tell_ us?"

Danny, Sam, and Jazz all looked up to see Tucker with an expression of shock and betrayal directed at not only Danny, but _Jazz_ as well.

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked, confused more than anything. He got up from his computer and crossed the room to see what Tucker had found.

"Th-that you're a _prince!_"

"_What?_" Danny jerked back then rolled his eyes. "Oh, _ha, ha,_ Tuck. Very funny."

Now it was Tucker's turn to be surprised.

"Dude, Danny, I'm not joking."

"WHAT?" All three of the other teens asked. They were all decidedly shocked.

Danny snatched the PDA out of his friend's hands while his sister moved to read over his shoulder.

Filling the small screen was an article entitled "_Where is Princess Madeline?"_ accompanied by a picture that was clearly of their parents somewhere in their twenties. Danny looked up from the device only briefly to show his friends just how completely shocked he was before starting to read:

_Twenty years ago exactly, "Where is Princess Madeline?" was one of the most asked questions among the Bairdanian people. Over the years, it has become less prominent, but current conditions have thrust it into the forefront once more. Of King Garrett's siblings, Princess Madeline is the only one left unaccounted for in the public eye: his older half- brother William Lancer is living and working as a teacher in Amity Park, Ohio, U.S.A., and Princess Alicia lives somewhere in the backwoods of Arkansas, U.S.A._

_Other prominent questions are whether she is married, has children, or if she is even still alive. To the left is the last public photo of Princess Madeline before her disappearance. No one knows who her escort was that day (King Garrett's Coronation) or if the two have even seen each other since, but we do know that nearly the entire royal family stayed out of the public eye for about a week the year previous. We know that Princess Alicia is without children and that a bitter divorce left her single approximately twelve years ago, and that William Lancer is not of the royal line. This leaves one final question: With King Garrett childless and on his death bed, will the long lost princess return? Or will the Wrenley line end with King Garrett? We here at _Hatton Press_ intend to find out. _

Danny could hardly breathe. When he did get his breath back, however, he couldn't help making a smart remark.

"You wouldn't think a family with a neon sign on the front of their house could have so many secrets."

His friends chuckled weakly, extremely uncomfortable with the situation. There was silence as everyone digested what they'd just discovered. There was a ragged intake of breath and a stifled sniffle before Jazz ran from the room.

"JAZZ!" Danny called after her, stunned. In his shock, he'd forgotten that she was in the room. The raven-haired teen raced after his sister, but it was too late: she'd gotten into her room and locked the door behind her. He slammed into the door anyway and tapped his fist against the wood hopelessly. He rested his head against it for a moment before pushing off of it to face his friends.

Tucker looked at him guiltily, and Sam averted her gaze.

…

A/N: Well, what did you think? I promise this won't be a carbon copy of _The Princess Diaries_, though the concept is derived from that book series. Please, tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	3. Breaking

A/N: Thank you for the great reviews! Also, to clear something up, Jazz was reading over Danny's shoulder. Logically, as the more avid reader, her reading rate is faster than her brother's, giving her more time to process the significance of what she had read.

Disclaimed.

….FentonWorks, the next morning…

Danny got up, yawning as his alarm went off. He had spent the night wide awake, trying to come to terms with what he had learned.

After his friends had left, Danny had spent some time flying in the hopes that it would clear his head as it always did. While it didn't help to clear his mind this time, it did at least calm him down from the shock of it all.

When he finally got back, he tried knocking on his sister's door again on the chance that she'd be ready to talk. She didn't answer, so, concerned, he phased in to check in on her.

What he found on the other side saddened him: Jazz was curled up on her bed, clutching Bearbert close. The red, puffiness of her eyes and the not-quite-dried tear tracks on her cheeks told him that she had cried herself to sleep. He didn't understand what had upset her like this.

Now, the ghost boy finished dressing and walked out of the room pondering his sister's behavior. He was about to walk downstairs to maybe grab something to eat before he left for school when he noticed that his sister's door was still shut tight. Changing directions, he knocked.

"Jazz?" he called, worried. It wasn't like his sister to still be in bed – she was always an early riser. Was she sick?

"Jazz?" he called again, a little bit louder. "I'm coming in."

He phased in and was even more concerned when he found her even more disheveled than she was the last time he'd checked on her. Was she faking it the night before to avoid talking?

He strode across the room and sat on the bed next to her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Jazz, Sis? C'mon, wake up. It's time for school," he prodded. After another minute or so of coaxing words and gentle shaking, the redhead looked up blearily at him.

Danny sagged in relief. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Jazz croaked and then cleared her throat to say it more audibly.

"Well," Danny said, doubtfully, "get dressed and I'll fly you to school. I don't think you should be driving and flying's faster anyway."

"Thanks, Little Brother."

Confident that she was feeling better, the younger sibling left the room. Once Jazz was finished, she met Danny on the roof looking very much like her usual self to those who didn't know her very well.

"Ready?" Danny Phantom asked, reaching out an arm so she could get into position for take-off. The white-haired teen frowned once they were in the air; it was a cruel trick to offer to fly, but he had a feeling it was the only way to get her to talk. For someone who was always proclaiming the importance of talking through your problems, Jazz Fenton very rarely took her own advice.

"Jazz, what's wrong?"

Jazz looked up at her brother, startled. She turned her wide eyes foreword before he could look back at her.

"You know, I'm not above making us both late," he stated pointedly, even as he kept his eyes on the skies.

"You wouldn't!" Jazz exclaimed without thinking, horrified.

Now Danny did look at her. "I would. You're always telling me not to keep things bottled up inside. Well, it's time to take your own advice: _talk._"

There was silence for a few minutes and Danny was worried that she was going to refuse. He glanced back at her, but just as it looked like she was going to start talking, his ghost sense went off. Jazz looked a little too relieved.

"Don't think you're off the hook, we _will_ talk," he warned her as he set her down in front of the school.

When Danny finally finished dealing with Skulker, Jazz had already run into the school and he was ten minutes late. As the day progressed, Danny took every chance to corner his sister, but she managed to slip away every time. It was getting to the point that he was contemplating using duplicates despite the risk.

"Detention, Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer informed him as he walked into class late yet again.

"Yes, sir," Danny said, resigned. He avoided the man's gaze as he made his way to his seat. He still couldn't believe that Mr. Lancer was his uncle. Maybe that was what was bothering Jazz? He didn't know what to think anymore. No, Jazz wouldn't be upset to have her favorite teacher as an uncle. Once class was over, Danny, with the help of Sam and Tucker, tried once more to catch his elusive sister. Still, she wasn't called a genius without reason.

…Janitor's Closet

Jazz felt bad for avoiding her brother – and his friends she noted as she looked through the crack in the door – but she couldn't let him know the real reason she'd been so upset. At least, not until she'd come to terms with it herself. She just knew that if she told him now, he would offer to give up his own happiness to help her…and she wasn't sure she'd be strong enough to resist the temptation to accept in her current state. So, she shut herself away from him and avoided him. The only comfort she had in this was that he seemed to be coping well with what they'd learned if his joke immediately after was any indication. Even if he wasn't, he had Sam and Tucker to talk to about it.

Perhaps he forgave their parents and aunts and uncles for their secrecy because he had such a big secret of his own? She wasn't sure, but the thought gave her an idea of what she could "confess" to him about her own reaction. Still, he would only be suspicious if she simply stopped fighting and told him. So, she waited.

….

Danny decided that he wasn't getting anything out of his sister at school, but he did have one thing he needed to tell her before she headed home and he went to detention. He'd thought about their situation as he lay awake the night before. At first, he'd wanted to confront their parents, ask them why they hadn't told them. Then, he'd wanted to pretend that he was still completely in the dark. He'd scrapped both ideas as one thought came across his mind: _Uncle Garrett is dying._

They'd known that he was sick, but Aunt Clara had made it sound as though it was nothing more than a bad cold – nothing _life-threatening._ He couldn't believe that his parents would take it so far as to downplay his uncle's illness; which meant that they didn't know. Throwing it in their faces would be cruel. Likewise, he couldn't simply ignore the fact. He finally came to the conclusion that he would have to talk to Mr. Lancer.

That still left the issue of convincing Jazz to not mention anything to their parents.

His eyes lit when they caught sight of Dash just down the hall: Jazz was still trying to prove her thesis that no one is un-tutorable…He couldn't believe he was doing this.

"Dash!" Danny waved to the quarterback, trying to get his attention. The A-listers – and, really, everyone in the hall – turned to stare at him. The foolhardy teen trudged forward, anyway.

"What do _you _want, Fen-toe-nail?" the blonde jock scowled down at the loser. Said loser was currently rubbing the bridge of his nose, obviously not wanting to do this.

"Okay, this is going to sound really bizarre coming from me but: Can I borrow your cell phone?"

"Huh?" Dash looked at him with an expression very reminiscent of the one he'd worn on Friday. He clearly doubted that the _real_ Danny Fenton had the audacity to make such a ridiculous request.

Seeing where the bully's thoughts were heading, Danny rushed to explain.

"Jazz is avoiding me, and I need to make sure she listens! It's urgent!"

"Why don't you ask your loser friends, Freak?" Dash threw at him.

"C'mon, Dash, think! If you were avoiding someone, would _you_ answer the phone if the caller I.D. showed that person's friend's number?" Danny asked.

"Well, no." Dash was getting uncomfortable. How was this geek so convincing?

"Exactly. We're _not_ friends; my sister will answer your call if only to be polite," Danny explained, getting nervous. "Please, Dash, this is important."

"And what do I get if I _do _let you borrow my phone?" Dash sneered. He couldn't believe he was actually considering this!

"My sister's number will be on your phone," Danny stated. He didn't like the idea, since Jazz had been trying to keep the number away from him, but he had no choice.

"Fine," Dash smirked, "but make it quick."

Catching the phone easily, Danny dialed Jazz's number.

"Jazz!" he exclaimed when she answered.

"…?"

"I borrowed it."

"…?"

"Not like _that!_ I _asked._ Just listen. Don't confront them yet. Wait for me."

"…?"

"I have my reasons, alright?" Danny answered patiently.

"…"

"Good. We're still talking, though," he reminded her before hanging up and giving the phone back to Dash. "Thanks."

"Don't expect it to happen again, Fentoad!"

Danny waved his hand to acknowledge that he'd heard as he ran to make it to detention on time.

…

"Ah, Mr. Fenton, so nice of you to join us," Mr. Lancer greeted him dryly. Danny nodded. It seemed like it would only be him, Paulina, Dale, and Nathan in detention. The halfa pulled out some homework and tried to work on it. When he found that he couldn't concentrate, he looked around. Dale was half-asleep and staring out the window and Nathan was drooling over a picture of Valerie. It was Paulina, however, that captured his interest, though not for the usual reasons; the Latina was glaring hatefully at Mr. Lancer.

This was decidedly strange, since the A-listers tended to have, at worst, a cool indifference to the overweight English teacher. Danny was now curious; what did Mr. Lancer do to earn _Paulina's_ ire? The thought entertained him, though he couldn't say _why._

Before he knew it, the detention was dismissed and his classmates left – Paulina sending one final but especially filthy glare at the teacher on her way out. Danny now found himself alone with Mr. Lancer. The balding man seemed unaware that there was still a teenager in the room as he packed his things to leave. After a moment, the man seemed to sense someone watching him and turned a surprised look to the raven-haired boy.

"Mr. Fenton? What are you still doing here? You're usually the first out the door," Lancer questioned. He'd been hearing from his colleagues all day that _Jazz _Fenton seemed a bit off, perhaps something was going on with her brother, as well?

"I want answers," the teenager replied stonily.

"Answers?" Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow, baffled by Daniel's attitude. "What kind of answers do you want, Mr. Fenton?"

"Why lie? I want the truth, _Uncle William._"

Will gasped, the blood draining from his face as the full gravity of his nephew's words sank in. He hardly noticed as he leaned heavily against his desk.

"How - ?" he managed to choke out, shocked.

"I get why my parents wouldn't say anything about Mom being a princess, really, I do. What I don't get is why lie about _you?_" Danny clarified. It was the truth, too. He'd had too many experiences with his own attitude with money and power not to. But he was still completely baffled about why they'd kept him and Jazz from knowing they had another maternal uncle.

"You know ev-everything?" Will gasped. For a moment he'd hoped that his identity was the only secret exposed.

"Yes." The hard look in Daniel's eyes told him that he should start explaining. Now.

Clearing his throat to steady his nerves, and taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he did just that.

"That is my fault, actually. I saw so many of my colleagues with relatives as students favoring them, turning a blind eye – I was afraid that if you kids knew, I would fall prey to that same mindset. I was afraid that I would give you special privileges if I saw some look or another on your faces – even if it was completely unintentional on your part – and become one of those teachers that I can't stand," he explained apologetically, addressing the question that had been posed. "There was also the frightening chance that you would _expect _that sort of behavior from me. I didn't want that for you – neither did your parents."

Hearing this, Danny relaxed his posture some. It made sense, and he seemed to sincerely care. That meant something to him. Still, there was one thing he didn't quite get.

"Why did you always side with Dash, though?"

His uncle had the grace to look sheepish. "I may have overcompensated. Honestly, I think if I had punished Mr. Baxter on certain occasions, I might have been too harsh. I didn't want to lose my job."

Now, Danny smirked, feeling better.

"Daniel -" Will began.

"It's Danny."

"Danny," he amended, "how did you find out about all this? Does Jasmine know?"

Danny sighed. _My turn. _"I had a personal heritage project for history. I thought I'd do my report on Bairdan and give the finished assignment to Mom after I got it back. I had a little trouble finding anything that wasn't related to travel, so I called Tucker to help me find some decent sites. He's the one that actually found the article. Sam and Jazz were in the room."

The older man nodded.

"Uncle William – "

"It's, uh, Will," he corrected.

"Uncle Will," Danny conceded, "do you know what's going on with Uncle Garrett?"

Will looked at his nephew, confused at the change in topic.

"I know your mother told me that the last time Clara called he was sick…"

"Do you know_ how_ sick?" Danny prodded. He didn't want to just blurt out what the article said in case it was wrong, but he had to take the chance.

"What are you getting at?" Will countered. Why was Danny asking about Garrett's health?

Danny looked away, his eyes burning. It hadn't really hit him until just then that his uncle might be _dying._ Even after two years of ghost fighting and near-death experiences, the word had never felt so _final. _

"Danny?"

His nephew didn't seem to hear him at first, but taking a deep breath, Danny turned to face him. The man was shocked to see him so close to tears.

"The," Danny cleared his throat, "the article Tucker found, was asking where my mom was, and if she had kids. It – it mentioned that Uncle Garrett was on his deathbed."

Will didn't know what to say, or how to respond. He had suspected, on some level, that it was worse than Clara had said, but surely this was an exaggeration? It _had_ to be! He just couldn't accept that his baby brother was dying. He couldn't!

"Can you call Aunt Clara? Maybe she can tell us the truth?" Danny pleaded. He seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

Will sighed heavily, looking older than ever.

"No, I'm afraid I don't have the money for the long distance," he apologized. "But there are other ways. We can cross-reference the article with others. Surely if it _is_ true, other sources will have picked up on it. I sincerely hope it is an exaggeration though."

"You and me both," Danny agreed. "I'll call Tucker; he can probably do it faster than we can. Heck, he could probably hack the royal medical records."

Will nodded, after teaching the young man for a year and a half, he didn't doubt it. In fact, it still surprised him that the school's files had not been tampered with.

After Danny made the call, an awkward silence settled between the two. What did you say to family you only knew in a teacher-student capacity?

"You know," Lancer commented, unable to stand the silence any longer, "I seem to remember you and your friends getting away with something in October, but I can't figure out how you did it."

He saw a glint of recognition in his nephew's eyes before they clouded over with some unrecognizable emotion. The teen lowered his head into his hands, his fingers grasping at the unruly black hair. Will frowned. The expression on Danny's face reminded him of something, but what? The silence prevailed for a long moment before Danny shook his head of whatever thoughts Will's comment had triggered.

"Why was _Paulina _so mad at you? She was glaring at you all day," he asked. It had only just occurred to him that it wasn't just detention time, but the whole day and even the previous week that this was happening.

A small smile quirked Will's lips as he thought of the reason – he _still_ couldn't believe it.

"You'll find out soon enough," he responded cryptically.

The boy grunted and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "You sound like Clockwork."

"What was that?" Mr. Lancer asked, not having caught the comment.

"Nothing."

After that, the two just endured the uncomfortable silence. It seemed that all attempts to break it only made it stronger.

"Knock, knock," a voice from the door sounded. Both men looked to see Tucker standing there with a light dusting of snow on his blue winter coat and both sighed in relief.

Danny was confused, though. "Tucker, what are you doing _here?_"

"Well, I figured that it would be better to check through the stuff here instead of at home, just in case I didn't have any good news," the techno-geek answered seriously. Danny smiled gratefully at his friend's thoughtfulness.

…..FentonWorks…

Jazz was getting antsy. She had been hiding in her room since she got home, using studying as an excuse. Even though she understood that her brother probably had good reasons for asking her not to confront their parents, she couldn't help feeling a little angry with him, too. He had, without even meaning to, taken away her one outlet for her real problem. Her mother was probably the only one who could really help her deal with the thing that had upset her so much.

Maybe there was a way that she could talk to her mother without letting on how much she knew? She'd done it when she needed advice concerning her brother before, even when he didn't know that she knew, but how could she go about _this?_ It wasn't like there was an alternate identity to hide her intentions behind!

She bit her lip. _Maybe I should ask about how she and Dad met, see if she lets anything slip?_

It seemed like a good idea, but she'd have to catch her mother alone to make sure her dad didn't put in his perspective. Now that she thought about it, her parents only really talked about their college days when they were together or Vlad was in the room. Tricky. _Smart._ Jazz smirked a little as it crossed her mind that Vlad was probably just as unaware about his obsession's past as her kids had been. It certainly helped that the Fruitloop didn't know.

With this buoying her thoughts, the teenager exited her room and went in search of her mother. She could probably claim that she was doing a study on how married couples talked about their first meeting when the other wasn't in the room to keep them from using the old tag-team strategy.

"Mom!" she called into the rest of the house. "Mom, could you come here a minute?"

As she suspected she would, the blue-jumpsuited woman came through the door in the kitchen that led down to the lab.

"What is it, Sweetie?" Maddie asked. Both of her children had been behaving oddly the night before and she hadn't even seen Danny since then.

"Could you tell me how you and Dad met? And why exactly you chose him?"

Maddie blinked at the unexpected question. She was about to call for Jack, but Jazz seemed to have anticipated this.

"Just you. I'm doing a study on the difference in perspective in a married couple's first meeting and it would contaminate both of your accounts if you heard the other!" Jazz assured her.

"Well, I suppose," Maddie conceded nervously. As a scientist, she understood what any one variable could do to the experiment. In fact, she often counted on it whenever her children asked about her childhood.

Jazz smiled triumphantly as she poised a pen over a pad of paper she'd grabbed before leaving her room.

"Well, when I was younger, there were a lot of… young men who were interested in me," Maddie began hesitantly. "I didn't like any of them because I could see that they were more interested in the money that my family had. By the time I got to college, I had actually sworn myself off of dating because I was so sick of it."

"What changed?" Jazz asked, genuinely curious. She had never heard this part before.

Maddie smiled at this. "I saw your father and Vlad in the campus cafeteria. Your father was talking so animatedly while Vlad just sat there scowling. It was pretty much love at first sight. Once I actually got to know them, my love for Jack just seemed to get deeper. I couldn't help it even if I wanted to!"

The younger redhead smiled. She could very clearly see it. "So, what made Dad better than Vlad?"

Maddie thought for a moment, trying to pinpoint just _one_ thing that would sum it up.

"His eyes," she answered, finally settling on something. It wasn't nearly enough to express how it had just felt so completely _right_ to be with Jack, but it was as close as she could get. When her daughter just looked confused, she elaborated.

"Growing up, the boys that I had known all had two things in common: ambition and greed. Vlad was no different, but… when I looked into your father's eyes…I saw something I had never seen before – a _dream._ He had hopes and dreams that he would follow even if everyone else laughed in his face and he faced poverty. And he cared. He really truly cared about other people. I'd never seen that before, at least, not in someone who wanted to date _me,_" Maddie told her wiping at her eyes a little. She could never _really_ express how much that meant to her. Even after Jack had met her parents, he still treated her the same as ever. He still treated her like a _human being_ instead of a trophy.

Jazz sighed happily. It wasn't the same as talking about her own problems, but hearing this story really did help her feel better about her own situation. She had never had to face greedy and power-hungry suitors before thanks to her parents' secrecy, and she was grateful for that.

"Thanks, Mom," she told her, sincerely, hoping to encompass everything that Maddie had done for her and her brother.

…Casper High School….

"Well?" Danny prodded as his friend sat back. Mr. Lancer leaned forward in anticipation as well.

Tucker sighed heavily. He looked at his friend and teacher sadly. "I'm sorry….It, it looks like that first article was right: King Garrett is dying."

Mr. Lancer took a ragged breath and pressed a hand over his mouth as he turned away. His shoulders were heaving with barely concealed sobs. Danny was faring only marginally better. He didn't turn away, but then, Tucker was his best friend, not his student. Still, no one could deny that the news had hit him hard if they saw the broken expression on his face. His eyes were bright with tears, but he didn't cry. After everything he'd been through, he had learned how to hide his emotions – if only to an extent around his friends.

Tucker felt horrible, but there was nothing he could do.

….

A/N: That was a long chapter. I hope that it explains at least some things. What did you think of it? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	4. The News and Debate

A/N: So, I got my first troll last chapter! You should read it – it's funny – especially if you like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air!

Disclaimed.

…FentonWorks…

Jazz talked to her mother for a few more minutes after their conversation to keep her distracted from the continued absence of her son. She knew it was only a matter of time; their parents weren't _that_ oblivious.

"Jazz, Honey, have you seen your brother?" Maddie inquired. "Even with detention, he should have been home by now."

Jazz bit her lip. She'd known it was coming, but she still didn't have a plausible excuse. She had just opened her mouth hoping that _something_ would come to mind when the door opened. The younger redhead sagged in relief at the knowledge that she wouldn't have to come up with something on the spot. Again. It was getting increasingly difficult to find excuses for her brother that their parents were still willing to accept.

Her relief didn't last long; however, as she remembered her brother's parting words from their brief phone call: _We're still talking._

"Danny! Where have you - ?" Maddie started scolding but broke off when she realized he wasn't alone. "Mr. Lancer?"

Jazz looked apprehensively toward the door again to see both her brother and their somewhat-estranged uncle looking tired and defeated at her and her mother.

"Maddie, we need to talk," Mr. Lancer told her gravely.

"Hey! Mr. Lancer, what are you doing here?" Jack greeted enthusiastically, but even he seemed disconcerted by his brother-in-law's demeanor.

The teacher said only two words, quietly, but by the effect they had he may as well have shouted them.

"They know."

Maddie sank back into her seat, her wide eyes darting between her two children. Jack, at first, looked confused, but his wife's reaction seemed to be all the explanation he needed; he, too, stared at his children.

Taking this as his cue, Danny stepped forward.

"Mom, Dad, I," he paused, "I found out because of a project I had for history. I didn't tell you about the project, because I wanted to give it to you, Mom. I was just afraid I wouldn't get to finish it, and I didn't want to disappoint you again. Sam and Tucker know, 'cause I needed help finding good sites – they won't tell anyone."

"Why didn't – Why didn't you come to _us_, Sweetheart?" Maddie stuttered, afraid that she'd lost her children's trust.

Mr. Lancer put a hand on his nephew's shoulder, giving him a look to tell him that he would explain this part.

"We need to talk, Maddie," Will told her heavily.

"And so do _we_," Danny told his sister, pulling her by the arm toward the stairs. A look of panic crossed her face – she wasn't _ready!_ She tried to pull away, but her brother's grip was unyielding.

He dragged her up to her room and shut the door behind them.

"I think it's about time we had that talk," Danny told her with steely resolve. Jazz opened and closed her mouth, trying to figure out what to say. Danny's gaze never wavered.

"How are you coping so well?" she snapped. It seemed like a good place to start. "They _lied_ to us!"

Danny crossed his arms, already suspicious. When he and Mr. Lancer had walked in, she and their mom had seemed comfortable and at ease with each other. His sister was _not _that good of an actress.

"Yeah, but that's my line," Danny told her. "Now, what's _yours?_"

Jazz flinched. He chooses _now_ to catch on quickly? She needed to figure something out; she _couldn't _tell him the truth.

"Why are you so bothered by the word 'clone'?" she countered, latching onto the idea like a lifeline. Her brother gasped, his eyes widening as he took a step back. For a moment, she thought she'd been successful, but then he regained his composure.

"Oh, no, we are _not_ turning this on me!" he shot back, though he still felt somewhat off-kilter. When did she catch _that?_ At least she didn't seem to notice how much damage her last argument had on him.

Okay, so trying to throw him using his own issues wasn't going to work. Time to try a new tactic.

"Vlad doesn't know about Mom!"

"Great!" Danny smirked, seeming to imagine the Fruitloop's reaction if he ever found out.

Jazz smiled, relieved. Maybe she should use Vlad to distract her brother in arguments more often.

"Now, tell me what's _wrong,_" Danny finished. "Specifically with _you._"

"_Nothing _is wrong!" Jazz argued. "It just hurt that they'd lied to us for so long!"

"Ya know, ClockWork doesn't give direct answers, but he sure gives some _great _nods in the right direction."

Jazz stared at her brother; he seemed to have a counter-argument for _everything._

"You should join debate," she suggested. She was desperate.

"Is this you surrendering?" Danny would not be distracted.

"No, just a compliment," Jazz denied. "Actually, I have homework to do - ."

"Not buying it," Danny cut her off, pointing towards her desk and the finished homework lying on top. Why did they have to be in _her_ room?

Jazz gulped as they both fell silent. It was a battle of wills now…Damn, she was doomed.

…Living room…

"Are you sure?" Maddie asked, pained by the news of her brother's failing health.

Will turned grief-stricken eyes to her. "We had Mr. Foley – Tucker – cross-reference the article. I think we can all agree that he's not likely to have missed anything."

Jack held his wife close, tears streaming down his face. Garrett was a good brother and had been Jack's best man.

"How long does Gary have?" he asked.

"I don't know. We'll have to ask Clara," Will answered grimly.

"And the kids found this all out last night?" Maddie gasped, crying. _No wonder they were avoiding us!_

"I think Jazz may have figured out more about her position in all of this; Danny complained that she was avoiding him all day," Will confided in them. "She knows who she is and what it means for her."

"Why would she be avoiding Danny though?" Jack remarked. "They've been so close!"

Will shook his head, "I don't know."

…

A/N: How's that for chapter four? Did the reveal to the adult Fenton's live up to expectations? Did Danny and Jazz's argument fit? Is Jazz's reasoning becoming clearer? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	5. Shattered Dreams

A/N: I'll save the excuses for the end of the chapter. Right now, I just want to get to the story.

Small warning, though: for consistency's sake I'll have to keep with the characterization for a little bit at the start of this chapter. Hopefully, I can resolve the issue to your satisfaction.

Disclaimed.

…Jazz's room….

Danny stared down his sister, waiting for her to break and tell him what was wrong. He was really worried about her. It shouldn't be long now. Already, tears were leaking from her eyes and her breath was hitching in her chest.

"Tell me," he pleaded softly. He knelt down in front of where she sat on her bed, so that she would have to look him in the eyes. This seemed to be the last straw in her already crumbling resolve, and she dropped to the floor and wrapped her arms around his neck, sobbing.

"I'm the Cr-crown princess!" she confessed. "I can't – can't…"

Jazz broke down once more while her brother just held her close, rocking her gently. It was another few minutes before she was able to continue.

"I can never," she gasped. "I can never be a psychologist!"

Danny's heart broke at his sister's confession. _Her dream…_ He knew all too well what that felt like – the portal accident and his responsibilities as a hero had taken away his chance at becoming an astronaut. If only there was something he could do, but there wasn't. So, he just did his best to comfort her, even as he shed a few tears of his own for her.

Jazz continued to cry into her little brother's shoulder for a little bit. She was confused and a little hurt that he hadn't offered to help, but, then, did he even know that there was something he _could_ do? She smiled a little, grateful that her resolve to protect him wouldn't be tested by the pain the loss of her dearest dream had caused her.

As his sister's sobs subsided, Danny lifted her up so that they were both sitting on her bed. The older girl pulled away wiping her eyes in frustration.

Danny didn't say anything. Instead, he waited until she had regained her composure to find out what she wanted him to do.

…Living room…

"Why don't you stay for dinner, Will, and we can catch up," Maddie suggested, wiping away her tears forcefully. "We can also figure out travel arrangements – Garrett isn't dead yet."

Will was glad to see a small spark of his sister's usual ferocity in the last part.

"I think I will, thank you," he accepted the invitation.

"Shouldn't we call Alicia?"

The siblings turned to stare at Jack. He and Alicia had never gotten along.

Jack shrugged. "I may not like her, but she's still family."

Maddie smiled, even after all these years he still managed to surprise her.

"Yes," she choked out. "Yes, Jack, we should probably call Alicia. But how? She doesn't have a phone in her cabin, and Jed at the General Store always hits on me when I call."

"Then I will make the call," Will offered. "He always rushes to get off of the phone when it's me…might have something to do with the lecture I gave him on the use of proper English that first time."

Maddie chuckled appreciatively at the thought. Will got up, patting his sister's shoulder as he made his way to the phone. He dialed, and paused while he waited to be connected to the only phone in Spittoon.

"Hello, Jed," Will greeted once the hillbilly picked up. "This is Will Lancer, I – Hello, Alicia."

"…!"

Will scowled. "Alicia, this isn't the time to make disparaging remarks about – "

"…?"

"ALICIA!" he snapped. "Listen to me – This is about Garrett!"

There was silence on the other end for a moment.

"…?"

"He's sick," Will answered quietly.

"…"

Will shook his head, and , then, remembered that she couldn't see him.

"It's worse than that," he told her miserably. "He's dying."

"WHAT? NO!..."

Will fought the tears as he forced the words to come out. "Maddie and I are about to make arrangements to visit, before…"

Alicia continued to rant and shout and cry on the other end. Her brother and sister in the kitchen met each other's tear-filled eyes. Maddie held out her hand for the phone. Meanwhile, Jack went to check up on the kids.

"Jazzy? Danny?" he called softly through the door before opening it. Inside, he found his daughter leaning on her brother's shoulder while he had his arm around her shoulders comfortingly. It seemed the kids had had a big conversation of their own.

"Aw, Jazzy," Jack sighed, coming to sit on her other side. She lifted her head from Danny's shoulder to look at him.

"How's Mom?" she asked quietly.

Jack smiled sadly. "She's upset, but she's strong. She'll be alright."

Both of his children smiled back at him tiredly, and Jack pulled them into a much-needed hug, though who needed it more was anyone's guess.

Danny was the first to pull away. He needed time to process everything that had gone down that day, and flying seemed like the best thing in the world. Still, he couldn't just disappear.

"Dad, I'm gonna…head out for a walk," Danny told him. "I need some time to myself, if that's okay?"

Jack nodded his understanding. "Do you think you can wait until after dinner? Mr. Lancer – I mean, your uncle Will is staying so we can work some stuff out, and I really think you should be there."

Danny shifted uncomfortably. He'd rather leave now and avoid the awkwardness that would ensue, but he didn't see any reason that he couldn't at least be polite.

"I can wait."

With that said, the three walked down to the kitchen where Maddie was just finishing a call looking even worse then when Jack had left her to her call with her sister.

"Maddie!" Jack exclaimed, rushing to her side. She welcomed the embrace as her body was wracked with terrible sobs.

Danny and Jazz stood back feeling unsure and afraid; they'd never seen their mother cry like this before. It was awhile before Maddie regained her composure. Even so, she was shaking so much that her husband had to guide her to a chair.

"Mom?" Jazz asked, worried.

"What did Clara say?" Mr. Lancer asked, his voice hushed with dread. After Alicia had been battled away from the phone in the General Store, shouting expletives the whole time, Maddie had called their sister-in-law to see how long they had left to visit Garrett. Jack was too worried about Maddie to even blink at the fact that when he left, she'd been talking to Alicia.

Maddie shook her head in her brother's direction.

"There's no time," she reported. "He died not-not even an _hour_ ago!"

In the past, Danny had felt embarrassed when anyone compared him to his eccentric father and denied the similarities, but, as he watched his mom, sister, and Mr. Lancer dissolve in grief, he felt comforted to see his dad was watching the whole nightmare unfold in the same detached daze that he was in. He felt numb, and colder than any freeze-ray he had ever produced.

_He's dead,_ he thought. _Uncle Garrett is _dead.

It had been years since Uncle Garrett and Aunt Clara had visited, but he still remembered. It had been about the time when his parents had first started construction on the Ghost Portal – and when he had started to believe that Jazz was right about them being crazy. Garrett had laughed when he voiced his fear that his parents had finally lost it.

"_They didn't lose anything," Garrett told his eleven year old nephew. "If they had, they _wouldn't _be building this contraption!"_

"_Don't tell me _you_ believe this stuff, too!" Jazz exclaimed, horrified that the man that had given her her first psychology book was in such dire need of a psychologist._

"_Maybe I do, maybe I don't," Garrett conceded. "Point is, _they _do. _They _haven't lost their beliefs or their dreams. Think of it this way, if they chose to give up on this, it would be like you giving up psychology or Danny giving up on being an astronaut without even trying, and then they _would _have lost something."_

Once Garrett and Clara left, Danny and Jazz kept in touch through letters and emails. That is, they both did, until the portal was finished…Not having the time to keep in touch was one of a very small number of regrets Danny had about being Danny Phantom. Now, he would never have the chance to explain…

"Danny? Danny, come on!" Jazz pleaded. Why wasn't he responding? Tears slid down her little brother's cheeks. What was _wrong? _ Thankfully, the adults were too distracted to see what was going on.

It hurt to know that Uncle Gary was gone along with the dreams he had inspired, but seeing that Danny was hurting seemed to snap her back to reality. Her Little Brother needed her!

"Come on, Danny!" she urged him. She had to think of something! _What always catches his attention?...Sam? No, if that were the case, they'd be dating already. Rockets? Stopped catching his eye a year ago. Vlad? No, no way, I am _not _traumatizing him any more than he already is by making him think the _Fruitloop_ is here…Aha!...And he argues that he's not like Dad…_

Leaning in close to his ear, Jazz said the one word that brought all Fenton men to high alert: "_Ghost._"

As predicted, her brother blinked and automatically assumed his battle stance. Even under the circumstances, Jazz couldn't help the giggle that escaped.

"I hate it when you do that," Danny hissed, shifting out of his stance before anyone else noticed.

"Yeah, well, you were catatonic!" Jazz whispered back. Before he could respond, she had brushed her own tears away and returned to their mother's side. This left Danny to snap their father out of it before their mom saw him – one nightmare at a time was enough.

….

A/N: I swear that was the last of the sob-fest! That's not to say there won't be some teary moments – there _is _still a funeral after all – but it won't be to the extent of the last few chapters.

Also, I'd like to apologize for how out-of-character Jazz was; I don't write her very often but she was important for this story. While I agree that I took it too far, I do feel the need to point out that Jazz has cried on the show. First, when she thought her Little Brother was a cheater in TUE and another time in _Secret Weapons_ when Danny yelled at her. In my opinion, the second example was the more reasonable situation. But crying because her brother _might_ cheat on a test? That seems a little silly.

P.S. I hope that I got Alicia's character in at least reasonable boundaries. If not, I'm sorry.

Tell me what you think of this chapter, and as alwaysALOHA.


	6. School

A/N: Sorry for taking so long with this update.

Disclaimed.

….Casper High School, Tuesday Morning….

"We're leaving tonight," Danny concluded. He had just been telling Sam and Tucker about the previous evening's events. It had been decided over a dinner hardly anyone touched that they would go about today so that they could find out about any assignments they would be missing.

"How's Jazz holding up?" Sam asked.

"Better," the ghost-boy smirked. "I'm pretty sure she was trying that psychobabble of hers on our parents this morning."

Tucker snickered, "That sounds like Jazz."

"Still," Danny continued, "do you guys think you can handle all the ghosts while I'm gone? They've been _way _too quiet lately and – " He paused as his ghost-sense went off. "That's my cue."

Sam shook her head as she watched him run for the nearest hiding spot. It was like the entire universe conspired against her half-ghost friend – whenever the ghost numbers were up, his human life was dull, and on the rare occasions that something big happened to his human half, his ghost half was left with little to nothing to do but freak about the lack of ghosts.

Tucker seemed to be thinking along the same lines as they sat in their first period class.

"Why do I get the feeling that he would _prefer_ more ghost attacks?"

Sam snorted. "Might have something to do with the fact that he knows how to deal with _them_ more than anything else."

"You've been talking to Jazz too much," Tucker remarked. "You're starting to sound like her."

Sam scowled and stuck her tongue out at her techno-geek friend.

"Sorry, I'm late, Mr. Falluca," Danny apologized as he skidded into the room. "I had trouble finding my book in my locker."

"Then you can spend your detention time after school to clean it," Mr. Falluca told him before turning back to the blackboard.

"I can't."

Teacher and students alike froze (excepting Sam and Tucker) at the words. Normally, Danny Fenton just nodded and took his punishment quietly.

"Here, I have a note," Danny hastily pulled out a single sheet of white paper. Eying his student suspiciously, the short educator took the paper and read it over. His expression turned sympathetic as he looked up at his student.

"My condolences, Mr. Fenton," Mr. Falluca told him. "You can serve your detention when you get back."

Danny nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Falluca."

Much of the day went by like this, though not all of the teachers were so quick to believe Danny was telling the truth. When this happened, Danny had to send them to Mr. Lancer, or, when he wasn't available, Jazz's teachers.

Danny really didn't know whether he wanted to laugh or bang his head on a wall – a very _hard _wall – when this happened.

When gym came around, Danny started to pull out the note for Ms. Tetslaff after class like he was supposed to.

"Don't bother," the burly teacher waved dismissively.

"But I – " Danny protested, thumbing in the school's direction where Mr. Lancer was. The teacher shook her head.

"You've never used forgeries before, Fenton, why would you start now?" Tetslaff asked rhetorically. "I believe you, unlike those moronic temps Ishiyama keeps hiring. Haven't you noticed it's only been the newbs giving you trouble today? You have my condolences."

Danny blinked in surprise, she was right, though he mentally questioned just what she was giving her condolences for – his uncle or the fact that he had to deal with the idiots the school called teachers.

"Thanks, Ms. Tetslaff," Danny said, really meaning it.

"You'll be doing a lot of push-ups for make-up work when you get back next week," Tetslaff smirked.

Danny grimaced as he headed for the locker rooms. _Figures._

"Hey, Fenturd! I heard you've been getting out of stuff all day!" an irritating voice called out once Danny was out of the locker rooms in his black T-shirt and blue jeans.

Danny slapped a hand across his face.

"Dash," he said, turning to face the pest, "I haven't been getting out of stuff. I'm going to serve my detentions next week, when I get back."

"What? Now you get vacations in the middle of the week? No fair!" Dash accused, lifting Danny and slamming his back against the lockers.

'A _Vacation?_" Jazz repeated, indignant. "Dash, our uncle _died!_ We're going to his _funeral!_"

Dash looked up to see the loser's hot, older sister glaring angrily at him.

"Uh…" Dash gaped, embarrassed. Sure, he was a bully, but he usually left his usual victims alone if he found out someone died. He wasn't a _total_ jerk! Besides, the ladies would never go out with him if he did _that_. With that in mind, Dash let go of his favorite punching bag and left.

"Are you okay, Little Brother?" Jazz asked, kneeling by the heap that was Danny.

Danny rolled his eyes, waiting for her to remember that he took far worse on a regular basis than Dash Baxter could ever hope to dish out.

"Right. Sorry, Standard Question," the redhead said sheepishly.

"It's fine," Danny dismissed the incident. "Haven't seen much of you today."

"Yeah, well, I've been avoiding my sympathetic classmates," Jazz explained, exasperated. "They will _not_ leave me _alone!_"

"At least you got your talk with _me _over with," Danny smirked as he headed towards his last class.

Jazz blushed as she thought of the day before.

"Is it bad that it was harder avoiding you than it is hiding from my classmates?" she pondered.

"Considering the brainy classes you take?" Danny asked, "Kinda."

The siblings laughed a little as they parted ways.

"See you after school, Danny."

"See ya," Danny waved, walking through the door. He headed to his seat behind Sam and next to Tucker. When Mr. Lancer still hadn't arrived by the time the bell rang, whispers broke out about what could be keeping him.

Paulina was scowling as had become the usual in Mr. Lancer's class as Star gossiped excitedly next to her. Again, Danny wondered what the teacher had done to make her so mad.

"Maybe I shouldn't have sent so many of those teachers to him," Danny commented to his friends.

"What else were you supposed to do?" Tucker shrugged. Before Danny could reply, the missing teacher arrived and Danny felt even worse.

There were dark circles under his eyes and his footsteps were heavy. He looked exhausted and completely miserable.

"He'd've probably been the same even if you hadn't," Sam comforted him, as usual seeming to read his mind. He smiled gratefully, but he couldn't help feeling at least somewhat responsible. The man _had _just lost a brother, after all, and having it repeatedly thrown in his face could not have been easy.

New murmurs broke out at the sight of the man. What was going _on?_ Mr. Lancer was always chipper or angry; no student had ever seen him in such a state. A flash of confusion and even sympathy crossed Paulina's face before her anger returned full force.

"Quiet down, people. I have an announcement," he ordered without his usual sharpness. Once they had followed the directive in record time, he continued, "I will not be here for the remainder of this week and into next week. However, this does not excuse _any _of you from completing assignments in this class. I expect you to be on your best behavior for the substitute."

Danny nodded slightly – they'd covered this the night before; Mr. Lancer would be tutoring him and Jazz in Bairdan so that they wouldn't have as much trouble getting back on track when they returned. Excuse me, so _Danny _wouldn't have so much trouble.

"Why are you going to be gone?" Mikey inquired nervously; Lancer was one of the only teachers that punished the jocks for bullying.

"That would be a personal matter, Mr. Forest," Mr. Lancer told the nerd, ending the discussion. They had decided to leave this as the official story to keep people from making the connection between the absences of the teacher and the Fenton's. "Now, please, read Chapter 34 of your novel quietly."

The class did as they were told, or, at least, pretended to while their teacher sat behind his desk reading a book of poetry. Those that weren't reading the assigned chapter were passing notes speculating where Lancer was going and what kind of personal business could pull him away. The theories varied in both tone and plausibility. Most were fairly far off the mark as most of the students couldn't imagine their balding, middle-aged, English teacher having family.

Danny hardly knew the teacher that had turned out to be family, but he felt like he should do _something. _He tapped his fingers on his desk nervously and even tried reading the depressing chapter while he thought.

_There has to be something… Oh, wait, _DUH!

Getting up from his seat, Danny approached the teacher's desk, fully aware that several pairs of eyes were following him.

"Mr. Lancer?" he said uncertainly. "I have a note."

"Thank you, Mr. Fenton. Now, return to your reading," the teacher dismissed him without looking up. Danny turned around, strangely disappointed, to do as he was told even though it felt wrong. He took only one step before he squared his shoulders and did an about-face; he wasn't going to be deterred so easily – not just because he didn't know the man as well as his sister.

"Are you okay?"

Will looked up at his nephew, a little surprised that he was showing the nerve to ask the _teacher _that in front of the whole class.

He smiled tiredly. "I will be. Thank you for asking, Mr. Fenton."

The young man nodded, seemingly satisfied as he returned to his seat.

…

A/N: Three guesses which book Chapter 34 is from! What did you think of Danny's teachers' reactions? Particularly, Ms. Tetslaff's reaction? Did you enjoy Sam and Tucker's involvement? Did Dash's reasoning for leaving his favorite punching back alone make sense? Are you getting infuriated that I keep beating around the bush with Paulina? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	7. Suddenly

A/N: Sorry for the delay, folks! My excuse: I started reading a Phineas & Ferb fanfiction on deviantArt called _The Seer_ by KicsterAsh. I _highly_ recommend it, but it should be said that it is incredibly _long. Long, _but _worth _the length.

Disclaimed.

…Private Jet…

It had been about three hours since the plane had taken off and already Danny was bored. It hadn't been that way at first. He and Jazz had both looked around in awe and excitedly explored the craft upon boarding as it was the only plane either teen had flown in that was not _Air Grits_. Technically, Danny had flown in the Fenton Jet that summer Freak Show had the Reality Gauntlet, but considering it was Fenton-made, he didn't count it. The adults had watched them with some amusement and relief that things were still somewhat normal after the strange two days that had led up to their trip.

Now, however, the adults were asleep – the Fenton's taking the bed and Lancer sprawled on a couch – and Jazz was reading a psychology book she'd brought along. That left Danny restlessly looking for something to do. He'd already tried video games, T.V., and even _reading_ with little success. He just _couldn't _stop thinking. He was either wondering about why Paulina was mad at Lancer simply because it was just so _odd_, or wondering when Jazz was going to ask about his problem with the word _clone_ – a question even _he _didn't know how to answer. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about it since she'd asked.

_Why _was _he so bothered by the word "clone"? _It didn't make sense to the hybrid teen. He'd never had a problem with the word before, so why _now?_ Sure, he hadn't _been _cloned before, but that had happened months ago, so why was it bothering him _now _all of a sudden? _Maybe it's because I call Danielle my cousin instead of my clone? _But, no, that didn't make sense either since the problem had only just started after nearly losing her to Vlad's sick plot. _Maybe that's why?_ That was closer, he was sure, but not quite. It felt like something deeper…

Danny shook his head and clutched it with both hands. _No, no, no, no, no. _NO! He was trying _not_ to think about that!

"Danny, are you alright?" Jazz asked, concern lacing her features. Startled by the sudden noise, Danny jumped.

_Did I say something out loud?_

Nerves almost as frayed as they'd been the last time Youngblood decided to cause trouble, Danny looked at his sister. Then, realizing what he must have looked like while he'd been thinking, he calmed down.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he reassured her quietly.

"You sure?" He had looked so serious while he thought and then…well, she wasn't quite sure what had made him grab his head like that.

"Yeah, don't worry," he replied. It wasn't really a lie, either; he was mostly just confused and uncertain. Still, there was that part of him he knew as worried for Danielle and always would be. It certainly didn't help knowing that he would be far from anywhere she would even think of looking for him. _What if she needs me? _GAH, _no! Stop that!_

"I wonder how Amity Park is doing?" he asked, more to distract himself than any real concern…yet.

Jazz grinned wryly. "I'm sure they're managing just fine without their big, strong hero. It's only been a few hours."

Danny gave a self-deprecating smile. "Yeah, well, you know me, I'm always gonna worry a little bit. Doesn't help that it was quiet there for a while."

"So, you had a few slow days – the numbers picked up before we left," Jazz pointed out. "And not in the 'I'm fleeing from the Big Bad' kind of way, either." She gave the spooky fingers as she said this. Danny chuckled.

"Yeah, I know," he whispered back before turning to gaze out the window. Jazz tilted her head and curiously observed her brother. This wasn't really like him – normally if he was worried about something, he would fight any attempt at reassurance, unless…

"That's not what you're really worried about, is it?" she asked softly.

"Hm?" Danny looked back at her, his eyes glazed over in thought.

"You're worried about that – that _clone_-thing, aren't you?" the girl prodded. Instantly, Danny glared angrily at her briefly, before his look turned to confusion.

_Why did I just feel so defensive all of a sudden? _Danny thought, befuddled. _It's not like Jazz was calling _Danielle _a thing… and she certainly didn't know to call her _cousin _instead of _clone… Danny frowned. Why did it suddenly feel weird thinking of Danielle as his cousin? That was what he always called her.

"Danny?" Jazz inquired.

"Hm? Wha – uh…I – " Danny hesitated. What could he say?

"You really should talk about it," Jazz persisted.

Danny sighed and smiled apologetically. "I – I know. And I _will_, but – but there's someone _in particular_ that I need to talk to about _this._"

"But - !"

"It's not that I'm shutting you out, Jazz," he assured her. "I…haven't even told Sam and Tucker."

This, above anything else, gave the redhead pause.

"_What?_" she hissed, shocked.

At this, Danny turned to face his sister more fully and took her hand. He looked down for a moment as he tried to think about how to word what he needed to say to make her understand.

"Jazz," he took a breath and then continued, "the thing is…_I_ don't even know what the issue is. I've been trying to figure out for a while now and – and I _think_ I've almost _got_ it." He held up his hand and shook his head to stop her from interrupting – he knew what she would say. "I – Jazz, this is something I need to figure out for myself. I'm _almost there_; I can _feel _it. This whole thing…it just, it makes me feel…confused and – and even…even a little…_scared_, I'll admit and that's something I didn't even realize until _today_. Point is, how do I talk about something even _I _don't understand?"

Jazz looked at her brother thoughtfully, though she couldn't stop her shoulders from dropping in disappointment.

Which only made her Little Brother grin. "And you say you're nothing like our parents."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Jazz demanded, narrowing her eyes dangerously at him.

"Oh, come on," Danny playfully nudged her. "You look just like Mom did when the Fenton Portal didn't work at first."

"Shut up," she blushed, nudging him back, but she was smiling. She probably _did_ look like her mom.

Soon after, the redhead yawned and settled herself more comfortably in the plush seat to get some sleep. Her brother also found a comfortable position to rest, finally able to set his worries aside.

Neither teen noticed that their long-unknown uncle had woken up in time to hear the tail-end of their conversation. He didn't dwell on the fact that his nephew was apparently trying to figure something out – he figured that the boy was finally coming to his senses about a certain vegan Goth – but it made him smile that the two could tease each other and laugh so comfortably. He'd seen a few siblings over the years drift apart and even bicker constantly and he was glad that his niece and nephew were so close.

Now if only _he _could rest so peacefully! If it wasn't unsettling dreams about Garrett, it was fear that the best thing to ever happen to him would fall to pieces. In many ways, he felt the same as his nephew: confused and scared. But what was he supposed to do? He couldn't very well risk his job just to get on his future step-daughter's good side…Pomona would _kill_ him for even contemplating it. After all, she did her best to balance out all of the spoiling her ex did.

_Maybe I should wake Maddie, _Will thought wryly. _Talking things out with his sister seemed to help _Danny…

…

A/N: There you go folks, Paulina's ire revealed…I seriously contemplated just _teasing _you a little longer, but that seemed cruel. That, and I needed to give _some _**obvious **purpose for this chappie! ;D While this was _mostly _filler and sibling fluff, what did you think? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	8. Misunderstandings

A/N: The wait between updates will probably be longer since classes start on Monday. Joy. …Still beats the technical problems that slowed this update.

Disclaimed.

…Bairdan…

It was early in the morning when the plane landed in Lamorak the capitol of Bairdan. It was a few minutes before the family disembarked and made their way to the limo waiting for them, the adults more than grateful that the press seemed to be in the dark about the return of the "lost" princess.

Bleary-eyed and shivering, Jazz glared at her brother.

"Not. Fair."

Danny just grinned back, casually walking past her. There were two reasons Jazz was irritated with him: (1) he seemed no less rested than he did in the morning on a regular school day, and (2) the frigid temperatures seemed to have no effect on the younger teen despite his coat being unzipped.

"I hate you," she hissed as she took her seat next to him in the luxiorious vehicle.

Danny chuckled lightly. He leaned closer to his sister and smirked.

"Nah, you're just jealous."

"Yes. Yes, I am," she responded grumpily, crossing her arms.

"Think about it this way," Danny told her, "you're tired because you _get_ to sleep at home."

Jazz flinched. "Sorry."

Danny smiled reassuringly and bumped shoulders with his sister.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, you could've slept on the plane."

Jazz sighed, "I did."

Danny just arched an eyebrow. "Jazz, I was awake for pretty much the whole flight over – you took a fifteen-minute _nap_."

"Fifteen minutes! _Jazz!_" Maddie scolded, having only heard the last line of the teens' conversation.

The younger redhead smiled sheepishly. "I got caught up in reading about Bairdan."

The halfa rolled his eyes – it was just like Jazz to study up on a place before going there. True, she had never been part of the _royal family _of a place she was visiting before…. He should probably bail his sister out of the scolding, especially given the number of times she'd done the same for him.

"So," Danny spoke loudly, turning to face his teacher – his _uncle_, "why's _Paulina_ mad at you?"

He _probably_ should have kept the amusement out of his voice but…come _on!_

Lancer blinked, startled. The rest of the limo's occupants turned to face him expectantly.

"Who's Paulina?" Jack asked.

"One of my classmates and the Queen B of the the school," Danny promptly supplied.

"Will," Maddie turned to him, "why _is_ one of your students mad at you?"

Will shifted uncomfortably; he wasn't used to this type of attention.

"Well, I _was _going to wait until later to say anything, in light of…" he cleared his throat. "I did tell you Pomona had a daughter, right?"

Jack and Maddie nodded.

"Who's Pomona?" Jazz asked. Meanwhile, her brother just lowered his eyelids halfway as he recognized the wording for what it was from his dealings with Vlad.

"Touché."

Will barked out a laugh – he certainly hadn't been expecting _that!_ His sister and brother-in-law looked at him bewildered.

"I may just have to give you extra credit for recognizing that payback for putting me in the spotlight," he chuckled. He turned to address his niece. "Pomona is the woman I've been dating for the past year and a half – and Ms. Sanchez's mother.'

Danny frowned. He wasn't good at math…"But Paulina's only been in a lousy mood for a little over a week."

"Yes, well," Lancer blushed, ducking his head, but he was smiling, "it's only been a little over a week since I proposed."

While his parents and sister offered their enthusiastic congratulations, Danny howled with laughter.

Will accepted the well-wishes happily, but he felt hurt by his nephew's reaction. Was it such a foreign topic that he was getting married that Danny had to _laugh _about it? He frowned as another thought occurred to him: _What if he tells his friends? Paulina is upset enough!_

It was about an hour and a half before the limo passed through the castle gates and during that time, Will had been questioned about his wedding plans so far – or, rather, he was thoroughly _interrogated_ – and Jazz was able to take a much-needed nap. Once he had calmed down – unsettlingly fast – Danny had turned to quietly look out the window, his eyes glazed over in thought.

Finally, the limo pulled up to the front entrance and Maddie and Jack exited, followed by their daughter. Danny was about to follow them when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"A word, Danny?"

The raven-haired teen turned to face Mr. Lancer – _Uncle Will,_ he reminded himself – a little surprised by the man's serious tone.

"Sure?" Danny looked at him confused.

"Look, I know that you are still adjusting to the fact that I am your uncle – and you're upset that we've kept this from you your whole life – but that does not give you the right to be so disrespectful."

When his nephew only looked more confused, Will elaborated.

"When I announced my engagement, you laughed as though it was the funniest thing in the world that someone would marry _me_."

He could see it the moment the boy understood.

"Oh, Mr. – _Uncle Will!_ I-I didn't - !" Danny was shocked and he cringed when he realized that that was likely how his reaction had appeared. He wiped a hand over his face and laughed a little in embarrassment.

He smiled weakly and apologetically at his tea-_uncle._

"…I was imagining Paulina's face."

Will laughed some himself in relief as he remembered that night. Even though her reaction had been less than stellar, he could understand why his nephew had laughed in imagining it. He should have realized that Danny wasn't generally mean-spirited.

"Yes, well," the older man grinned, "I can see how that could garner such a reaction."

"By the way, congrats on the engagement," Danny told him sincerely. "I don't think I said that."

"Thank you. I guess I don't know you as well as I thought," Will mused. "It seems as though we're _both _still adjusting."

"Yeah, no doubt," Danny agreed as they walked through the doors into the spacious and grand entrance hall.

"Actually, there's one more thing," Will started. "I would really appreciate it if you wouldn't say anything about this, yet, not even to your friends."

Danny bit his lip, he _hated _keeping things from his friends. He sighed, it seemed like he was keeping a lot from them nowadays.

"Alright," he conceded uneasily. The experienced teacher seemed to catch on.

"It won't be forever, it's just…right now, I'm just trying to get Paulina to stop _hating _me," he confessed.

Danny smiled, more comfortable about keeping this secret now that he knew _why_…and that it wouldn't be forever.

"Yeah, okay," he said more resolutely. "And, a word of advice? Don't try so hard with Paulina – you're better off just making sure that her _mom_ is happy. Paulina will come around."

Will felt bemused at getting advice from such a seemingly troubled teen. Although…it _was _good advice. If Paulina saw that he made her mother happy, maybe she _would _come around.

Danny walked past him to join his sister in openly gaping at their surroundings. Will bit back a laugh when he noticed a butler glaring distastefully at the teens - and their parents.

_Must be new,_ Will thought.

Danny looked around at the grand staircase, the marble columns and floors, the intricately carved railings, and the light mosaic scenes that covered much of the wall space and took his breath away. He had been in castles before, but none had ever given him such a feeling of calm and peace like this one did. Given, two out of the three castles he'd been in had belonged to _enemies_ and two were in the _Ghost Zone…_

Looking to his left, Danny saw Jazz drinking in their surroundings. She had only ever been in Vlad's castle in Wisconsin before this and was clearly enjoying the difference.

"Maddie!" a rough, crystalline voice exclaimed. The group turned as one to see a woman come through a door to their right.

Queen Clara was impeccable: her curly, golden hair pinned back from her face, her navy blue blouse crisp and clean, her black skirt freshly pressed, and her make-up tasteful and expertly applied. Yet, as she rushed to embrace her sister-in-law and buried her face in the taller woman's shoulder, it was clear that her husband's death had taken its toll. Maddie hugged her tightly to her, pressing her face in the soft hair as the two shared their grief.

Will stepped forward to try to comfort his sisters, but Jack was quicker, sweeping the two women into his arms in one of the bear hugs he was so famous for back home. Confident that Jack was enough, Will sneaked a look at the butler from earlier and had to cough to hide his laughter.

_Yep, he's new._

The butler in question was spluttering in shock.

Very _new._

Once Jack had set them down, Clara was the first to pull away, holding Maddie at arms' length.

"Look at you," she said, her hazel eyes still watery. "Last time I saw you you were wearing that blue jumpsuit and Jack was wearing that orange one."

Maddie chuckled weakly and put a gloveless had over her sister-in-law's arm.

"Yes, well, they weren't exactly appropriate."

It was true, neither Fenton adult was wearing their customary jumpsuits. Maddie was wearing a black sweater and gray slacks with a long, black, woolen coat while Jack was wearing a black sweater-vest over a dark gray dress-shirt with black pants and a gray wool coat. It was certainly a far cry from their usual wardrobe; in fact, the whole family had had to go shopping for appropriate attire as soon as the kids got out of school. Jack scratched at his neck by the collar, unaccustomed to the fabric.

"Come on," Clara said, leading them toward the sweeping stairs. "You must be hungry after the long flight. Roger!" She addressed the new butler, "go to the kitchen and have them bring breakfast to my private dining room."

The queen turned to lead her in-laws to the designated room and froze when she saw the two teenagers. Her eyes widened as it registered what their presence meant.

"Jazz?" she breathed. "Danny?"

"Hi, Aunt Clara," the two greeted shyly. They hadn't seen her for five years and back then she hadn't been a _queen_. At least, they hadn't _known_ it.

The newly dubbed "Roger" fainted from shock.

…

A/N: Well, now, Danny knows about Paulina! I hope that little gag I pulled with Lancer wording his initial response so that _Danny _was in the dark whereas his parents were in the know as payback made sense. If not, then I hope that explained it! What did you think of the misunderstanding between Lancer and Danny? Did you like Queen Clara? Pay close attention to Roger, and as alwaysALOHA!


	9. Explanations

A/N: Thank you for all the great reviews!

Disclaimed.

…Unknown Location…

"They called her _Aunt _Clara? You're _certain_ about this?" a deep, gravelly voice demanded over the phone.

"Y-Y-Yes!" a man stuttered, his eyes darting around the supply closet he had hidden in. If he was caught…!

There was silence for a moment as the owner of the voice pondered the implications.

"Is there _any _possibility," the voice asked, his tone deadly quiet, "that they are the _queen's_ relatives?"

"I, uh," the coward stalled, breaking out in a cold sweat. "No. No, there's no chance."

More silence.

"And the man? Her," the voice seemed to utter the word only grudgingly, "_husband?_ What of him?"

"An oaf, sir," the man spoke disdainfully. "An _American _oaf."

The voice growled deeply. After all this time, she returns _married _to that bumbling idiot she brought to Garrett's coronation! His plans were ruined!

…But, wait…there were ways to get around that…he had before.

"Watch them _carefully_," he ordered, the sleazy smile evident in his voice, "and report anything of note to me."

"Y-Yes, sir," the man choked out. The moment the first word was out of his mouth, though, there was a click and all he heard was the dial tone.

…Queen Clara's Private Dining Room…

"A project? Really?" Clara chuckled. "You've been lax in your secret-keeping, Will!"

Will nearly choked on his tea and spluttered to defend himself. Everyone else laughed at his reaction to the teasing and he pouted at falling for it.

"Yeah," Danny smiled. "It was a personal heritage project for history, and I couldn't find a darn thing on this country that wasn't for travel! I got so frustrated I was about to explode!"

"No, no, if I remember correctly, it was your _computer_ that was in danger of exploding," Jazz teased.

"Ah, shut up," Danny said, sticking out his tongue at the redhead. "Anyway, I had to call my friends for help. It was _Tucker_ that found the article. Talk about being _blindsided!_"

Maddie, Jack, and Will flinched at this guiltily.

Clara smirked," We told you so."

Maddie chuckled, "So you did. I wi – It's a shame it happened now, like this…"

There was silence as everyone in the room tried to avoid each other's eyes. They had managed to talk around the subject the whole time, but that statement had tripped on the edge of it.

Clara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. They had all known that this conversation was coming.

"We can't keep avoiding it; this doesn't just affect our family," the queen stated quietly. Still, she couldn't bring herself to say the dreadful words, not yet. The pain of it was still too fresh.

It was like a heavy blanket had settled over the room as the family digested her words. Clara turned to face Maddie and Jack.

"You know the law; I am not a blood relative of the royal line," she continued, her voice hitching with pent-up emotion. "I cannot continue to be queen."

Maddie buried her face in Jack's chest, her shoulders shaking as her children looked on. Will closed his eyes; he knew the law well enough. His heart broke for his sister and brother-in-law, knowing they would have to set aside their dream until their daughter came of age – or their son, if she abdicated.

"Perhaps Parliament will allow you to rule until Jasmine's graduation?" Will suggested in the hopes of forestalling this heartache. "To give Maddie and Jack time to get their affairs in order?"

Jack looked up hopefully, still holding his wife tight. Ghost hunting was his life aside from his family, and it was a piece of _his_ family history.

Clara nodded, "I'm sure I could arrange it. You may have to return every couple of weeks or so, but you should be able to live at home for a few more months."

Maddie turned in Jack's embrace so that her face was visible and sent her sister a grateful smile.

"What about Aunt Alicia?" Danny suggested. He knew it was selfish – Alicia _hated _people – but he couldn't help it.

Aunt Clara's smile was a little too understanding even as she shook her head.

"Alicia can't, because she abdicated when she was sixteen. Otherwise, she would have been queen, instead of Garrett," Clara explained.

Danny's eyes widened, and he whipped his head around to face his sister who was steadfastly avoiding his gaze. He narrowed his eyes.

Oh, they would have _words._

"Where _is _Aunt Alicia, anyway?" Jazz inquired, hoping to divert her brother's attention. "I thought she got here before us."

"If I'm not mistaken," Lancer responded to his niece, "she's in the stables. She always went there when she was upset when we were kids."

"She's been there all day, probably trying to tame that horse the stable master has been frustrated with," Clara confirmed. "That actually reminds me: Jazz, Danny, have either of you been horse riding?"

Both teens responded negatively; horse riding had never really crossed their minds.

"Well, then, I'll arrange lessons for you with the stable-master," she told them. Her voice quieted as she explained why they needed to learn. "It's Bairdanian tradition that when a ruler dies, the royal family rides west, away from the tomb. It signifies the passing of the crown and the passage of time."

"That's beautiful," Jazz murmured sadly and leaned against her brother. She was still so tired from her lack of sleep on the plane, and she was sure her brother was even more tired. Maybe he would consent to wait until after they'd both gotten some sleep before he confronted her, as she knew he would.

…

A/N: Kinda short, I know, but this just seemed like a good stopping point. What do you think? Did the "voice" seem menacing? Did you like the conversation between the queen and her family? Did you like how the possible solution to Jazz's worries was revealed? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	10. Schooling

A/N: Art supplies cost too much.

Disclaimed.

…Amity Park…

It was just after six o'clock in the morning in Amity Park and its citizens were just stirring from sleep. A cold wind swept through the trees in the park and pushed through every crack it could find in the warm fortresses that were people's homes.

Sam threw her blanket over her head, grumbling. She knew she had to get up, even before her alarm started blaring _Dumpty Humpty, _and she was disciplined that she would, but that didn't stop her from partaking in that most-clichéd of all teenage behaviors: stalling. It was too cold and, worse, Danny wouldn't be at school today.

It wasn't just that she wouldn't be seeing her friend and crush, (though she would only admit the latter to herself and, occasionally, _vaguely_, to Tucker), because Danny missing school wasn't all that strange. No, it was that Danny, _and _Jazz, _and _Mr. Lancer would all be gone. So far as the Goth knew, Jazz and Mr. Lancer had never missed a day of school with the exception of Jazz running away to spy on Vlad.

Huffing out a breath of frustration of the undoubtedly weird day ahead, Sam tossed the covers off and got ready for school.

Finally dressed in a pair of black jeans, her warmest black sweater, and her signature combat boots, she braced herself to face her overly chipper parents and the slight change in the daily routine. _Usually, _her morning started like this: her parents would tell her to come straight home for some gag-tastic activity and she would tell them she couldn't because she had plans with Danny and Tucker, an announcement which would be followed by an argument that would continue until Grandma Ida interfered. Sam grimaced as she imagined the delight on their faces when they realized that she wouldn't be spending the afternoon with "that Fenton boy" they hated so much.

"Sammy! Come straight home after school so we can go shopping for the banquet at the Country Club!" Pamela chirped brightly.

"Sorry, Mom, I'm hanging out with Tucker later," Sam replied monotonously. Her mom knew that she always hung out with her friends after school. She would submit to the shopping trip later if only to prevent her mom from buying her some pink monstrosity for the charity event.

"You _always_ - !" Pamela started to shout, but she stopped suddenly, her eyes bulging as her daughter's words finally registered: Tucker, not _Danny and Tucker!_ She was barely aware of her husband choking on his morning coffee.

There was silence as they processed the information.

Sam thought about sneaking out before they remembered she was there, but she knew she would never hear the end of it if she did.

…Besides, their looks were just so _comical!_

Then their faces broke into wide grins and Sam resumed her usual scowl. Cue the disparaging comments.

"You've finally realized we were right about that Fenton boy!" Jeremy exclaimed. He was so _proud!_

Pamela beamed happily.

Sam's scowl deepened before shifting into a smirk – time to burst their bubble!

"Don't get so excited," she told them. "Danny's out of town for his uncle's funeral."

Just as Sam had predicted, her parents' elation turned sour. Her morning salvaged, the Goth left to go to school.

…Casper High…

"Hey, Sam," Tucker greeted his friend. Sam tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace.

"Hey, Tuck."

"Parents overjoyed by the lack of Danny in your plans?"

Sam rolled her eyes, "Do you even need to ask?"

Tucker snorted, "Not really."

Sam turned the combination for her locker and looked over her shoulder at her friend briefly.

"How'd your parents react?"

Tucker shrugged, poking idly at his ever-present PDA.

"Eh, they were surprised," he commented, then his nose scrunched in disgust at something. "You don't want to know the rest."

Sam blinked in surprise; she thought Tucker's parents _liked _Danny.

"Tell me anyway," she decided. Her parents had used pretty much every insult she could think of, what difference did it make what Tucker's parents said about Danny?

Tucker grimaced but complied. "They thought, heh, they thought that since, um…"

Sam rolled her eyes, "Spit it out."

"They thought that-that because Danny wasn't – and you and me, without…!" Tucker looked a little green and Sam gagged.

"Oh, gross!" Sam recoiled.

Tucker shuddered in agreement. "_Tell _me about it! I _told _you you didn't want to know!"

"Why would they even _think _that?" the girl asked, horrified. "You're like a _brother_ to me!"

"And you're like a _sister _to me!" Tucker agreed.

'Next time you say I don't want to know, I won't ask," Sam declared, giving one last shudder.

"Let's never speak of this again," Tucker suggested.

"Agreed."

The rest of the day passed relatively quietly, at least by Amity Park standards. Paulina was in a noticeably brighter mood, though no one could figure out why. Their sub for Mr. Lancer's class was a jittery little woman who flinched at any sudden movement – it wouldn't be long before she fled town like so many others before her.

Sam briefly wondered where Ishiyama kept finding the suckers to replace them.

….Bairdan…

"Why didn't you tell me, Jazz?" Danny questioned. After talking some more about the funeral and the arrangements for Maddie and Jack's coronation – something that felt too weird to think about – the teens had been shown to their rooms so that they could get settled. It was in Danny's room – or, rather, _suite _– that he and Jazz were sitting on a nice couch.

"'It's _fine!_" Jazz snapped defensively. "It doesn't matter."

"Doesn't - ? _Jazz,_" Danny admonished his sister, concerned, "you have a way _out! _You have a chance to follow your _dreams! _Of _course _it matters!"

Jazz looked away so he wouldn't see the tears welling in her eyes. It _did_ matter, and it hurt _so much_, but that's why she _couldn't _abdicate. She couldn't let her little brother go through this.

Danny rested a hand on her shoulder and forced her to look at him, concern as obvious on his face as in his voice.

"Jazz," Danny said seriously, "did you think I would just let you give up your dreams if I'd known?"

Jazz cringed at the hint of hurt in his voice.

"Abdicate," he told her simply, his tone honest.

Jazz closed her eyes and shook her head.

"It's too much responsibility."

"Yeah, I'm _such _a stranger to big responsibility," Danny snorted, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Jazz tried to smile but couldn't.

"Danny, you can't leave Amity Park," she tried to reason with him.

It gave him pause, at least.

"And you can't leave your dreams," Danny rebuked stubbornly. He _was _worried about his hometown, but…there was time to figure…_something_ out.

"What about _your _dreams, Danny?" Jazz asked sadly. She hated herself for letting him get to her even a little.

"I've _lived_ my dreams, remember? Now, it's your turn."

Tears sprang to her eyes anew as she had to fight even harder against the seed of hope he was cultivating against her will. She had to protect him and his future.

"It's not the same thing, Danny," she sighed heavily.

"What's not?" he asked genuinely confused.

"Ghost hunting and diplomacy," Jazz elaborated. It was her last hope.

"Well, no, but I'm not a one-trick pony," Danny commented dryly.

"That's not what I meant!" Jazz huffed, frustrated. Couldn't he just accept that his future was free? "Just drop it, okay?"

"Jazz…"

"_Drop it!_" Jazz yelled, her eyes blazing. Danny held his hands up in a calming gesture. He'd drop it…for now. He wasn't giving up on her, though.

…Sitting Room…

"I can get a list of the best schools in the country for Danny," Clara offered quietly. The move was a touchy subject since they couldn't be certain how much time they had or how the kids would adjust to the change.

"I don't know, Clara," Maddie sighed. "I know we have to move, but Danny will be devastated not having Sam and Tucker right there."

Will shook his head sadly; even as distanced as he was from his nephew he couldn't imagine separating that inseparable trio.

"Not to mention that he's finally reached a comfortable plateau with his grades. He's not as excelled as his sister, but he's no longer in danger of failing. Transferring him now would only risk his grades dropping again, especially considering the differences between American and European curriculum."

"Then what do we do?" Jack asked. "If we can't transfer him and we _definitely_ can't leave him alone, what do we do?"

The adults exchanged looks, each trying to figure out a solution to their current problem.

"I've got it!"

…

A/N: What a doozy! What did you think? Did Tucker and Sam's day without Danny, particularly the awkwardness surrounding Tucker's parents' assumption that they were dating simply because Danny wasn't going to hang out without them make you laugh? Was the conversation between Danny and Jazz natural? Are you mad about the cliff-hanger? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!

P.S. I don't mean any offense to Tucker/Sam shippers, I just happen to think they think of each other as siblings.

P.P.S. Tucker's parents' assumption _might _have something to do with poor word choice on Tucker's part. ;D


	11. Degrees of Hate

A/N: I really don't have anything clever to say here.

Disclaimed.

…Sitting Room…

"_I've got it!"_

Everyone except Maddie stared at Jack with surprise. Maddie knew he sometimes came off as a bumbling idiot (a trait that she found endearing), but he was the idea man behind many of their big projects.

"Well," Will prompted.

Jack beamed, "We'll ask Vladdy to watch out for him!"

His bright smile wavered when his wife's and brother-in-law's reactions were less than enthusiastic. Clara didn't seem to have a reaction, not knowing enough about Vlad to have an opinion on the matter.

Jack was confused when even Maddie seemed uncomfortable with the idea. Vladdy was his – _their _best friend! Why didn't Maddie see that it was the solution to their problem?

"We could appoint him as Danny's legal guardian!" he tried again, thinking perhaps they hadn't understood. Still, they didn't seem to like the idea.

"Jack…," Maddie hesitantly began. How could she word this without hurting him? "Jack, Honey, Vlad is…a busy man."

_Oh,_ Jack thought. _Is that all?_

He perked up instantly – Vlad was a great friend, he'd help.

"Vladdy won't mind!"

Maddie cringed. She'd been hoping Jack would accept the excuse. Her real problem lay in Vlad's continued advances. Advances their son had seen clearly. She would have to just say it: she didn't trust Vlad.

Luckily, she didn't have to.

"I'm not so sure _Danny _would be so happy with that arrangement, Jack," Will intervened cautiously. He knew Jack idolized Vlad Masters, but there was something about the man that made Will uneasy, not least of which was his blatant come-ons to Will's sister.

"Nonsense!" Jack declared, getting angry. "Danny loves Vladdy!"

_V-man's a good man! Why is Will acting like this? _He just didn't understand!

Will flinched at his words. Was the man really so oblivious that he couldn't tell the difference between genuine and forced cheer? Or was Danny really that great of an actor?

"Actually," Will started uncomfortably. Why did _he _have to tell him this? "I've overheard Danny – and Jazz – talking to his friends about Mayor Masters at school. Not one word was very complimentary."

"Well, just because he doesn't compliment -!" Jack tried to protest, stubbornly refusing to believe his children didn't like his old college buddy.

Will shook his head, frustrated. "You misunderstand me, Jack. When I say it wasn't very complimentary, I mean that what they – _all four of them_ – had to say did not reflect favorably on Vlad Masters. Danny probably acts the way he does when you're around to keep from hurting your feelings."

As he was saying this, Jack was shaking his head vigorously in denial. _No, it _can't _be! Danny wouldn't do that!_

Maddie looked at her brother with narrowed eyes; this was the first _she'd _heard of this!

"What _kinds _of unflattering things are Danny and Jazz saying about Vlad?" Maddie asked. She knew _Danny _didn't like Vlad, considering the man had _proposed _to her in front of him and took advantage of the fact that they were stranded to do so, but she had never even _suspected _that _Jazz_ didn't like him. Did Danny tell her? She supposed it was possible.

Will felt distinctly uncomfortable. He'd thought at least _she _would know!

"Well," Will faltered as he looked at his brother-in-law. Why did _he _have to be the one to tell them this?

"Will," Clara prodded gently. She didn't know much about Vlad Masters or his history with her in-laws, but she could tell that the only one who considered him a _good friend _was Jack. Maddie looked downright uneasy which told her that she was at least somewhat aware of her children's distaste for the man, but hadn't pushed Will to elaborate because of Jack. Jack's face displayed a myriad of emotions, most notably anger, hurt, and confusion.

The middle-aged teacher sighed heavily before lifting his gaze to match that of his sister-in-law, unable to look at Jack or Maddie.

"He frequently refers to the man as a Fruitloop, Cheesehead, or simply a lonely old man who needs a cat," he recited the names he'd heard the most. "Also, on multiple occasions, I've heard him explicitly say that he hates the man. Jazz isn't as vocal, but…it's clear that she shares his sentiments, if at a lesser degree. It's been getting worse in the past few months, though."

Maddie was stunned. She'd known Danny didn't like Vlad, but not to this extent. She and Jack discouraged their children from using the word _hate_ and, for the most part, her baby boy adhered to that, so for him to say he _hated _Vlad…

Jack was heartbroken. Vlad was his friend!...But Danny was his _son! _He _knew _Danny didn't use that word lightly, which meant that _Vlad_…had done something to _deserve _it!

Will felt guilty for his words, but, at the same time, he _didn't regret saying them._ Something was going on – and had been for a while – so getting that out might lead to some answers.

Clara stared at them all, deeply troubled. She was aware that there was some mystery surrounding Danny. She knew that Maddie was frustrated with all the times Danny had missed curfew, forgotten his chores, and how much he had drifted away from her. Will had expressed similar sentiments of frustration and confusion about their mutual nephew's poor grades and attendance in his letters. Was this the cause of it? Or merely a part of a much bigger issue? How many secrets did this family _have?_

The silence in the room was suffocating as the four pondered the implications.

Clara was the first to do anything, calling one of her ladies-in-waiting, Lucille, and having her go get the prince and princess. When her family looked at her she simply explained that explanations were in order and the teens were the ones to give them.

Ten minutes later, Lucille returned followed by Jazz and Danny.

Maddie stood and walked to her son frowning and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Danny," she addressed him, "I have to ask you something, and, when I do, I need you to answer me _honestly._"

"I - ," Danny began. He let out a huff of breath and continued. "I'll try."

Maddie's frown deepened at the ambiguous answer; he'd been giving a lot of those lately.

Shaking off her momentary distraction, Maddie leveled Danny with a look.

"Why do you _hate_ Vlad Masters?"

Jazz and Danny looked shocked by the question and Danny whipped his face around to look at his father. Jack stared back at him with a grim expression. Danny returned his gaze to meet that of his mother. Maddie was startled to see the resolve in those familiar crystal blue orbs.

Danny scowled. "He's a jerk, he makes fun of Dad, he _flirts _with you no matter _how _many times you've flat-out _rejected _him, and - !"

Danny stopped himself mid-rant, his eyes becoming distant for a moment.

Jazz could tell the words _he's been trying to kill Dad for years _in the offing, but there was something else there, too. It took her a moment, but when she realized that her brother's face had taken on the expression she'd only seen on him when someone brought up the subject of clones, her eyes bugged and she had to work to keep from exclaiming her shock.

Danny shook himself free of his thoughtful stupor and finished in a quieter tone, "and that's it."

Abruptly, he turned and left the room, his sister at his heels. Neither sibling looked back, not wanting to see the stricken look they knew would be on their father's face; this wasn't how either of them had wanted him to find out.

Once they were in the hall and safely out of earshot, Jazz spoke up, though Danny tried to keep going.

"Danny, wait!" she insisted. "Danny!"

When he finally turned around to face her, his eyes were hard and his jaw as clenched, though she knew his anger wasn't directed at her.

"He cloned you, didn't he?" Jazz stated. "_Vlad _cloned you!"

Danny closed his eyes for a second before leveling a steady look at his sister. There was no point denying it.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "But you don't have to worry about it, all of the clones were – all of the _clones_…"

Danny stopped, his face scrunching in concentration as he continued to mutter those same four words under his breath. Then, faster than Jazz could have anticipated, his eyes widened and his face drained of all color. Absolute shock and horror – and something Jazz couldn't readily identify – overtook his features.

"Danny?" she asked, alarmed. She'd _never _seen her brother like this. "DANNY!"

Danny staggered away from her, shaking his head before stumbling away down the hall. She started to run after him, but her scream had alerted the adults and she had to come up with some excuse. Whatever was wrong with her brother was something more than cloning which in itself the girl was sure her brother didn't want known.

"Jasmine! What happened?" Maddie franticly demanded.

"I-I-Uh!" Jazz stuttered. _What do I say? What do I say? What do I say?_ "I don't know! I think – I think everything has just finally hit him!"

Jazz was too worried about Danny to feel any relief when they bought her impromptu lie. She stared down the corridor Danny had disappeared down. At least the first part of her story wasn't a lie – and maybe the second part was only misleading? She couldn't be sure.

The young redhead jumped when a hand rested on her shoulder. She looked up to see Mr. Lancer giving her a worried look.

"Are you sure you don't know?" he asked quietly. By the way he was looking at her, she could tell that he suspected _something._

She looked over his shoulder to her parents and aunt who were at the moment arguing about how to find Danny and find out what was wrong with him. Further down the hall she could see Aunt Alicia in her usual overalls coming towards them, clearly surprised by the tension in her sister and in-laws.

Biting her lip, Jazz turned back to the man she'd known only as her teacher for the past four years.

"I," she breathed, her eyes troubled, "I really don't know, Mr. Lan – I mean, Uncle Will. I mean…"

She looked back down the corridor in the direction her brother had gone. She still wanted to go after him but knew at this point that it would be useless – if Danny didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be.

"I know…_some_ of it," Jazz confessed softly, still staring down the hall, "but…it's _Danny's _secret and _Danny's _choice whether he says anything."

Will looked at his niece worriedly. What did she mean? What kind of _secret_ could Danny have that could be so serious? Even more frightening was that he believed Jazz when she said she really didn't know what had set him off just then.

"…Why did Mom ask him about that? About why he hated Vlad?" Jazz cautiously questioned. It really had seemed out of the blue. She looked up at her uncle with a little fear in her eyes. This, Will decided, was a little unsettling. Why would she be afraid?

"We were…trying to figure out living arrangements for your brother until his graduation," Will answered carefully, watching for her reaction. Her eyes widened in alarm before narrowing in confusion.

"But, why would that…?" she trailed off. That still didn't explain why they had asked about why Danny _hated _Vlad – the question was just too specific.

"You're father suggested him, but…I hear more in those old school hallways than you think," Will explained. Again, Jazz's eyes widened in alarm as she looked at him sharply.

"Oh?" she inquired. Did Mr. Lancer know more than he let on? She half-hoped that he _did. _It would make things so much easier for Danny if he did…or would it?

"Just bits and pieces," he elaborated. "I still don't know why he misses so much school if that's what is bothering you. And if it is, why haven't you tried to stop him?"

Will didn't mean to put her on the spot, but he was curious. Jazz was his best student and he knew that she valued school. He also knew that she was very overprotective of her brother, so why _did _she let him continue?

Jazz bit her lip, squirming as she tried to think of how to answer that without giving too much away. She thought about it seriously, too. Why _didn't _she try to stop him? He put his life in danger every _day!_ She knew he got hurt, having tended to some of his more severe injuries herself when Sam wasn't available to do so. Then she thought of the people he'd saved, the lives he improved, and she knew what her answer was.

"Because I'm proud of him," she smiled.

Will stared at her in surprise, trying to figure it out, trying to find some clue to the mystery that was his nephew.

…

A/N: That…was intense. What did you think of the confrontations? Of Jazz's reaction when she figured it out? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	12. Family Worries

A/N: Enjoy the angst!

Disclaimed.

…Bairdan…

Jazz got up from the couch and started pacing again. It had been hours since her brother had run off and, predictably, no one had been able to find any sign of the missing prince. At the moment, Jazz was contemplating two different courses of action: call Sam or Tucker to ask them if they knew anything, or use the Boo-merang to find Danny. There was a third option in calling _Vlad _to demand answers, but she didn't even _consider _that idea before tossing it.

At the moment, she was pacing her brother's suite's sitting area, hoping he would return from his alone-time and _talk._ However, that was very unlikely. Oh, he would return – Danny wasn't one to make people worry unnecessarily – he just wouldn't _talk _about it. He'd said as much on…the…plane…

Jazz's eyes widened as she thought back to the night before, when she'd brought up the subject. He'd said there was someone specific he needed to talk to about it but _who?_

…Stables….

Danny shivered as he silently berated himself, and distantly wondered why he was so cold – hadn't that stopped when he mastered his ice powers? This thought sent him into another rant of self-reproof. What if Danielle developed her ice powers soon? Would she even know to come to him? Or would she just brush it off as the weather until it was too late? He was bigger than her and his first experience with the overwhelming cold had nearly killed him! She was smaller, so it wouldn't take as long for the ice to overcome her so thoroughly. Why was he so _stupid?_

"I'm the son of _scientists_," Danny muttered, upset with himself, "and I didn't figure it out. No wonder my grades are so bad!"

There was a snort and Danny looked up, alert, only to find the horse whose stall he'd intruded for some privacy. It was a beautiful animal – completely black except for a light dappling of white on its rump – and big, but Danny had fought bigger and scarier things so he went back to his brooding.

The worst part was that it was probably one of the most basic lessons in biology. _Tucker _would have figured it out and he slept through Biology class most of the time!

Danny groaned loudly and let his head fall back against the wall of the stall with a satisfying thunk.

_Where is she? _ he wondered wistfully.

Even if she _was _a clone –

If she wasn't –

If Vlad hadn't –

She was just a kid and he was responsible.

Danny groaned again – why couldn't he just say it? Or even_ think _it?

The horse turned its head and snorted before it started whuffling his hair, causing the searched-for prince to lift a hand to gently push the animal's head away. But, the horse was persistent, and Danny pushed his head away again.

"Hey, quit it," he chuckled weakly. That tickled.

The small smile he'd cracked at the horse's antics faded though as he thought about Danielle, his –

"Hey kid!" a gruff voice scolded, startling the halfa from his thoughts. "Get out of there!"

Danny whipped his head up to face the direction it came from to see a burly man in a brown leather bomber jacket, jeans, and sturdy work boots standing just outside the stall. He had thinning red hair and a thick, graying beard.

"Don't you know how dangerous that is?" the man admonished furiously. He didn't know who this kid was, and, at the moment, he didn't really care. It was a wonder he hadn't been kicked in the head!

Danny huffed a breath and instantly regretted it – how could he have _not _noticed the smell? The horse almost seemed insulted by his look of disgust.

Rolling his eyes at the thought, Danny put his hand against the wall and got to his feet and was surprised to find how shaky his legs were. He tried to step forward only, finding the action too much for his wobbly legs, to slump against the wall.

The man took a step forward, alarmed.

"You alright there, Lad?" he questioned, his expression softening. Was the boy sick?

Danny looked up but his vision was blurry. He tried blinking it away, his face scrunching in confusion. What was wrong with him?

"Boy?" the man said, reminding him he was there.

"I-I'm fine," he mumbled in response, attempting another step forward.

The man swore as the boy fell forward, unconscious. He lifted him over his shoulder and carried him out of the stall, locking it behind him.

"What'm I to do with you?" he sighed as he set the boy down against the outer wall of the stall he'd been hiding in. He pitied the boy, who looked no more than sixteen or seventeen. The man wondered who the boy was – the deep purple button-down shirt and black slacks told him he wasn't just some street urchin – but why was he hiding in a horse stall here? What could have happened to make him so distraught that he didn't know he was trespassing? And, more interestingly, where did he get the _skill_ to do so even in such a state.

"Rafe?" a familiar voice called. Duty dictated that he answer immediately, but he wasn't sure he should leave the boy alone.

"Rafe! I _know _you're in here!" she called again, irritated.

Sighing, Rafe grabbed a spare horse blanket and draped it around the kid's shoulders.

"I'm comin'!" he called in reply. Then, casting one last pitiful glance at the boy, Rafe went to meet Princess Alicia.

…Amity Park…

"The city is fi-!" Sam said groggily, only to pause when she realized the person on the phone was not who she was expecting. "_Jazz? _Do you have any idea what time it is over here?"

Jazz flinched as she looked at her watch which was still set to Amity Park time.

"Sorry, I just," she apologized, "I didn't know what else to do."

Sam sat up more fully in bed, still half asleep.

"What's up?" she asked. Jazz generally didn't call her unless something was going on with Danny. Sure, they were friends, but they talked more in person than on the phone.

The Goth could hear Jazz breathing over the phone, trying to figure out how to word what she had to say.

"…Have you…ever noticed how Danny…_flinches_, at the word 'clone'?" Jazz finally uttered. She felt guilty, like she was betraying her brother's trust, but she needed to know how much the other two knew.

Sam stifled a yawn, contemplating the question. She hadn't really thought about it before but now that she did…there was when he stumbled over the word while placating Dash on Friday and a few times when they'd overheard nerds theorizing about Star Wars and the Clone Wars.

"…A couple times, yeah. Why?" Sam admitted, confused. Was this really so urgent that she had to be woken up at such a horrible hour. She liked night as much as the next Goth, but she needed sleep, too.

"It just…The subject came up…right before Danny ran off," Jazz confessed vaguely. It wasn't her place to tell about it, especially when she didn't know the whole story. "No one's seen him since."

Now Sam was wide awake. Danny disappeared?

"You say he ran off…how did he look?" Sam questioned. Danny's ghost sense may have gone off and if that was the case his non-reappearance might mean he was in trouble.

"….I, Sam…I've never seen that look on his face."

Sam breathed deeply, trying to steady her shaky hands so she didn't drop the phone. _It doesn't mean anything,_ she told herself. She didn't believe it.

"…Are you sure it wasn't a ghost?" Sam asked, half-hoping, half-dreading that it was. They could handle ghosts.

"Yes, I'm sure," Jazz answered without hesitation, but Sam could tell she was still worried.

Sam thought about this. Danny obviously wanted some time alone. If they were still in Amity Park, she would tell the older girl to check the roof of the Ops Center or that hill overlooking City Hall…But they weren't. They weren't even in the _country. _

"Have you tried the Boo-merang?" Sam asked, but she already knew the answer. It had reached the status of Standard Question among the group of friends whenever Danny went missing, even though they only used the device for emergencies and a last resort.

Jazz shook her head before remembering that the Goth couldn't see her. 'He needs some time to himself."

"Jazz, what exactly - ?" Sam tried to ask but was cut off by a sharp gasp from the other girl.

"DANNY! What's wrong with him?"

Sam was thoroughly alarmed by the frantic question and pressed her ear closer to the earpiece of her phone, trying desperately to hear what was going on.

After a few heart-pounding minutes, Jazz got back on, sounding much calmer.

"He's okay, Sam. I'm sorry, I just –They carried him in," she explained apologetically.

"Why'd they have to carry him in?" Sam demanded. If he was "okay", why couldn't he have walked in himself?

"He hasn't had a decent night's sleep since Saturday. Heck, he didn't sleep _at all_ last night. He passed out in the stables," Jazz elaborated, frowning concernedly.

Sam breathed a sigh of relief that it was only exhaustion and not something more life-threatening. Still, it worried her that Danny wasn't sleeping.

….

A/N: _Yeah_, I need to lighten up. So, Danny is trying to come to terms with something to do with Danielle and Jazz and Sam are worried about him. What did you think of Danny's inner turmoil? Did you like the horse trying to cheer him up? Did his collapse seem realistic, considering he was so busy thinking about Danielle to notice how tired he was? Did you like Rafe? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	13. WakeUp Calls

A/N: I'm procrastinating on homework…You guys are _so_ lucky!

Disclaimed.

…Bairdan…

The sun was shining brightly the next day, having fought the winter cloud cover and finally won. It sparkled victoriously on the crisp, white snow of the castle grounds, making them look even more like a fairytale with the castle's towers also covered in the glistening snow.

It was too bright.

Danny had just woken up and, although the curtains were closed, a thin sliver of light slipped through the crack in the covering where the curtains met and flashed painfully across his yet-unaccustomed eyes. He rolled over so he was facing away from the obnoxiously bright light and pulled his heavy blankets over his head to block it out. He wanted to go back to sleep, as it had been a wonderfully dreamless night, but it was too late.

He felt awful. It was almost like waking up after the battle with Pariah: when the sun had first poked him in the eye, he'd been disoriented and wondered where he was, what had happened and why he felt like a ton of bricks.

He still felt like a ton of bricks.

It was _just _like the Pariah incident…only worse.

Danny opened his eyes again. What was he going to do? He had _no idea_ where Dani had flown off to! Even if he did, he was nowhere near there, since he was sure that she wouldn't cross the ocean…At least he hoped she wouldn't try it. That still left the whole United States…and the Ghost Zone, which he didn't even want to think about as a possibility.

He groaned and wiped a hand down his face. He had a _lot _of ground to cover, and he didn't even know where to _start._

"Danny?"

Danny nearly jumped when he heard his father's voice; he hadn't realized he was there. When he didn't hear his dad say anything else, he guessed that his dad had assumed he was wrong. Danny half-wanted to keep it that way when he remembered what he'd said just before disappearing. How would Danny ever tell his dad just _how_ vile Vlad was…Danny felt sick to his stomach as he remembered Vlad's attempt to kill Danielle, the worst thing he had ever done.

With a shudder, Danny quickly sat up to let his dad know he was awake. He regretted moving so fast when his vision darkened and he felt lightheaded. He gulped in deep breaths to clear his head.

"YOU'RE AWAKE!" Jack exclaimed. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes showing he had not slept well, but relieved to see his son awake.

Danny flinched at the volume but smiled anyway.

"Yeah," the teen breathed. "I – Dad, about…what I said last night…are you okay?"

Jack looked at his son, surprised. Was _he_ okay?

"Danny-boy!" he exclaimed. When Danny only continued to look at _him _with concern, Jack sighed.

"_Danny,_" Jack shook his head, "I'm more worried about _you!_ Why haven't you been sleeping?"

Danny smiled sheepishly, bringing his hand up to rub the back of his neck.

"I-I just, I," the teen stuttered, "I've …had a lot to think about lately and – and I guess I just…_forgot_ to sleep."

Jack chuckled at that. "You _forgot?"_

"Woo," he said, wiping a tear from his eye as the laughs subsided. He grinned at his son, "I needed that!"

Danny was smiling, too. It felt good to make his dad laugh again. It seemed all he ever did was upset him one way or another these days, what with being the bearer of bad news and hunting ghosts as Danny Phantom. His smile slipped. He'd told his dad that Vlad was slime – and then just walked away.

"Still…," Danny started uncomfortably. "Dad, I…Yesterday, I said…some stuff…"

He slumped, not wanting to finish his question. Why hadn't he _stayed?_

Danny sighed again. He _knew _why he'd left: if he'd stayed, he would have exposed Vlad for the monster he was and, consequently, himself as the ghost-boy.

Danny bit his lip and decided to suck it up.

"Are you…_mad,_ that I…_don't like _Vlad?" Danny cringed. It got sticky there for a second, but now wasn't the time for the "H" word.

Jack swallowed and looked away from his son, trying to collect his thoughts. He knew Danny wasn't lying, not with this. Maddie had confirmed that Vlad had made advances. Jazz had been a little more detailed about what made the man a jerk; the disparaging comments about him, Jack, his attempts to convince both Danny and Jazz to renounce their father for him…it didn't take being a genius to realize he was wrong about his old college buddy. He just didn't know what to say. Many of those things should have been _obvious_ to him…and Jack feared that some small part of his children hated _him_, too, for not seeing it.

"Dad?" Danny croaked. _Was _he mad? He'd been quiet for so long…and Jack Fenton was rarely quiet.

Jack looked up to see his son staring at him fearfully and fidgeting with his hands nervously.

"I'm not mad," Jack reassured him. "I just – I'm …DO YOU HATE ME, TOO?"

Danny recoiled at the panicked volume but stared at his father in absolute shock.

"_What?_ _Hate -? _Dad, NO! Of course not – Why would you even – ? Of _course not!_" Danny blustered. Unable to form anymore words, much less a complete sentence, in his shock, the boy openly gaped at his father, who looked incredibly relieved by his outburst. Out of all of the ways his dad could have reacted to the revelation that his best friend _wasn't_ his friend, _this_ was not what Danny had expected.

There was silence as neither one knew what to say. As the minutes ticked by, Danny became more uncomfortable. It was becoming increasingly hard not to think about how worried he was for Danielle. Not wanting his mind to go down that path again until he could actually _do_ something about it, Danny scrambled to come up with something to say.

"So, um," Danny cleared his throat, "what _time_ is it, anyway?"

Jack looked up, happy that the silence was over…and that his son had changed the subject.

"It's, oh, about two o'clock," Jack shrugged. Danny's eyes popped open at that…

How long was that anyway?

…Amity Park…

Vlad frowned, drumming his fingers on the immaculate mahogany desk as he waited for someone to pick up the phone. It wasn't often that the multi-billionaire mayor called FentonWorks, mostly because he always wound up talking to _Jack._ What made that even worse was that _that _usually happened because that _impudent brat_ put that oaf on just to antagonize Vlad. If he ever risked calling the Fentons, it was because, just like now, he was forced to in his position as mayor.

The reason why he had to call was very different from the usual warning not to let Jack drive: today, he was calling because the couple had been neglecting their responsibilities as the town's primary ghost hunters. The ghost numbers hadn't _increased_ so much as they hadn't _decreased _with the lack of resistance as, even stranger; _Danny Phantom_ was nowhere to be seen.

After getting the answering machine, _again, _the frustrated mayor slammed the phone back into its cradle without bothering to leave a message.

"_Where are they?_" Vlad hissed. Just a few months ago, he would have simply tapped into his surveillance bugs to see what was going on, but the child had gotten wise and destroyed them all. Also, it was very unlikely that flying in invisibly to see for himself would glean any new information as he was beginning to doubt they were home at all.

….Bairdan….

Jack and Danny (who'd quickly changed into a sweater and jeans from the clothes he'd been wearing the night before) had gone to the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat before going to show that the latter of the two was just fine.

"Are you sure?" Maddie asked, worriedly. "We could put off the riding lessons until tomorrow."

Danny rolled his eyes; he really should have expected this. He entertained the thought of humoring her but almost immediately dismissed it as a _very bad idea._ For one, she would just get even more worried…and for another, he didn't think he could handle being left to his thoughts.

"I'm sure," he confirmed and, just because he couldn't resist, added, "Isn't there some kind of horse-related adage that goes with this?"

Maddie cracked a wry smile. "Yes, I believe there is."

Kissing him on the forehead, she went to talk to the other adults.

"You just couldn't resist, could you?" Jazz asked him under her breath, leaning closer conspiratorially.

"Nope," Danny smirked back.

Jazz leaned back, a satisfied look on her face. "Good. Now I _know_ you're being honest."

Danny laughed.

…

A/N: Is it just me, or does Jazz keep getting all the good lines? What did you think of the father-son bonding? Did you laugh at how frustrated Vlad was getting? Was it a good chapter in general? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!

P.S. I just couldn't help thinking that Danny _would _put his dad on the phone whenever Vlad calls, just to annoy him. After all, Jack isn't bothered by the conversations – but _Vlad_ is!

P.P.S. I also couldn't resist making a jab at Danny's math skills by having him wonder just how long he'd been asleep.


	14. Horse Sense

A/N: Oh, WOW! A chapter that might make you laugh! Sorry for the delay; school is time-consuming.

Disclaimed.

…Unknown…

He paced the room as he thought. His informant had told him the night before that the prince – whom the boy undoubtedly was – had collapsed the night before. It would have been better if the father had been the one to pass out as it would have given him a much better alibi for the man's death.

Still…there was promise in killing off the boy. The loss of her son would humble Princess Madeline, put her in her place…and if he was careful, he could drive a wedge between her and her idiot husband. The daughter did not concern him much – his informant's description of her showed that she was as idiotic as her father – always gaping – even if she was as beautiful as her mother. He would deal with her if and when he was assured of his own heir.

Rrrrriiiiiinnnnnggg! The phone chirped.

…Bairdan…

Maddie glanced back worriedly at her children – specifically her son – again. She couldn't help but feel that _his_ definition of fine was quite different from _hers._

With his shoulders hunched up to his ears and his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his red coat – which he'd worn to keep from messing up his nice black coat – many would assume that he was just cold. Maddie knew better; Danny had always been a little tolerant of the cold and his lab accident nearly two years earlier only seemed to have enhanced this trait. This tolerance didn't particularly worry her anymore since it seemed more beneficial to him than not. No, it was his behavior right now that scared her.

He raised his head and sent her what he must have thought was a reassuring smile, but it only worried her more. The smile didn't meet the cerulean orbs and there were dark circles under his eyes. It didn't help that he seemed to be leaning against his sister.

"He'll be _fine_, Mads," Jack reassured her, wrapping a warm arm around her shoulders. "He's a Fenton!"

Maddie chuckled gratefully.

…

"Maybe you should sit on the sidelines today," Jazz suggested worriedly.

"I'm _fine_, Jazz," Danny reiterated, annoyed.

Jazz rolled her eyes. "You forget, Little Brother, I know what _your _definition of _fine_ is!"

Danny scowled, exasperated. "Really, Jazz, I'm fine. After having breakfast – lunch – _food_, I feel better."

Jazz still looked a little doubtful. After all, he was still leaning on her shoulder. Seeming to realize this, he straightened out and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"_Really_," he told her sincerely. "Don't worry so much, okay? I was worse off than this when I finally shoved Pariah into the Sarcophagus!"

"Hey," Jazz smiled slightly, "I told you I was always going to be meddling and overprotective."

"Yeah," Danny chuckled, "you did."

"Speaking of which," Jazz turned accusingly to face him, her finger poking him in the chest, "why did you run off -?"

"_Jazz_," Danny said warningly.

"No, I mean it, Danny," Jazz persisted, "I can help! You just need to te-!"

"Drop. It," Danny hissed through clenched teeth. He was trying so hard _not _to think of that. He knew Jazz was only trying to help, but, really, she was only making things worse.

Jazz frowned. Why couldn't he just _talk?_ It was obviously tearing him up inside! She wanted _so badly_ to help him, but what could she do? He was so sure that he needed to talk to some mysterious person about it.

"I'll always be here for you," she told him sincerely. She knew better than to keep pushing her brother.

"You don't have to be," Danny smiled slyly, choosing to take the wording much more literally than he knew she intended. Jazz looked at her brother, utterly confused – and a little hurt – by his words before catching on.

"Drop it!" she scowled, shoving him into a snow bank at the side of the path. Immediately realizing what she'd just done, the redhead gasped, her eyes going wide as she clapped her hands over her mouth.

On the ground, Danny unburied himself from the fluffy white crystals and sent a playfully predatory grin at his sister.

"Eep!" was immediately followed by a wave of cold snow being swept in her direction. Danny was laughing his head off at his sister whom had landed on her butt with a stunned expression on her face.

"Oh, _you!_" Jazz grinned, gathering the snow around her to make snowballs. She probably looked like a three-year-old but she didn't care as she picked herself up and started pelting her brother with her ammunition.

"Thanks for the wake-up call!" Danny shouted, throwing another snowball at his sister, who ducked but seemed too stunned by her own action to dodge the next.

"Oof!" Jazz grunted at the impact. "You and your witty banter!"

Danny laughed, "It's not banter if it's only _one-sided!_"

"Hey!" Jazz giggled, running and dodging from her brother. "It's not banter if it's _no-sided_, either!"

Danny took on a mock-hurt look with a hand to his chest.

"Oh, she throws a _curve-ball_," he responded melodramatically. "_Ouch!_"

The teens laughed, continuing their game and banter, completely unaware that they now had an audience.

Maddie laughed at her children's antics, somewhat relieved to see that Danny really was okay. She was content to watch the play from afar, though.

"Aren't they a little old for that?" Alicia commented, scowling. Why did they have to be so much like _Jack? _It was surprising that the idiot hadn't joined in yet…_Oh, wait._

A snowball had just hit Danny in the back of the head from the adults' direction.

Danny spun around gleefully, a snowball poised and ready, only to stop with his jaw dropping and lose his grip on the compacted snow…

…Amity Park…

The students and faculty of Casper High all stopped what they were doing, confused by the sense that something extremely _strange_ had just happened.

…Bairdan…

Alicia was confused; why would Danny react like that? It was only his buffoonish father acting like a kid again. Turning around, she found her answer: standing amongst the other adults, her brother _Will_ was casually tossing a freshly-packed snowball in his hand with a somewhat evil look on his face. His smirk only widened when he caught her staring incredulously at him.

"If you think _they're _too old for this, I'd _hate_ to know what you think of me," Will commented dryly before promptly tossing the snowball in his sister's face.

Maddie quickly pressed a hand to her lips to suppress her laughter. Alicia's face was _priceless!_

Danny and Jazz both lost it, the younger of the two falling back into the snowdrift his sister had pushed him into earlier in hysterics.

…

Rafe looked at his watch again; they were supposed to be here half an hour ago. Was there something wrong?

The night before, when he'd found a teenager in the black horse's stall, he never would have dreamed that he'd just met the prince. Unlike the rest of the country, he knew there was one – as well as a princess – because he'd kept in touch with Princess Alicia, but had he been asked to identify them he didn't think he would have pointed to the boy that had collapsed into his arms that night. It wasn't that he thought so little of the boy; rather, it was that he seemed so normal and so completely _vulnerable._ That wasn't to say that royals couldn't be normal – King Garrett was a laid-back, normal man – but given what he knew about Princess Madeline and Prince Jack's occupation…he'd expected stranger.

Rafe sighed, now wasn't the time to think about the royal family's many eccentricities. With one last glance at his watch, which showed that only another minute had passed since he'd last checked, the stable master opened the doors to the stables…

…And immediately had to duck as a snowball went sailing over his head. Rafe looked on, bewildered at the full-blown battle being waged by the royal family, adults versus kids.

….

Once everyone had settled down and warmed up, they gathered in the indoor corral waiting for the lesson to start. For the adults – even Jack – this was nothing more than a refresher course and they all had their horses ready and waiting to begin. Jazz and Danny, however, were wandering the aisles as instructed to choose their horses.

Jazz found her horse rather quickly in a sweet Palomino named Butternut. Danny was still looking.

He stopped at several different stalls, but the horses either shied away or stomped threateningly, forcing the young prince to move on. Did he scare all of them the night before? Or did they sense that he wasn't quite what he appeared to be? If that was the case, what was he going to do?

Rafe watched the prince sympathetically as every horse he encountered reacted negatively. He didn't understand the animals' reactions; by everything he knew about horses and what little he knew of the lad, the horses should be acting more like Butternut had reacted to the princess. Were the prince's emotions _that _tumultuous?

If so, then he would need a steady, calm horse that he could handle – and that could handle _him._ With this in mind, the stable master turned away from the prince and his fruitless search for a steed and headed toward the stall he knew held the very horse the boy needed…

….

A/N: I know, _cliffhanger,_ but it was the perfect place to end the chapter. Were you sickened by the Big Bad's thought processes at the beginning? What did you think of Danny and Jazz's argument? Did you get a few laughs from the snowball fight? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	15. Conflicting Ideas

A/N: Blame TV Tropes.

Disclaimed.

…..Bairdan….

Rafe stood at the stall door staring at the horse calmly eating his oats as though nothing major had changed in the world that week, and perhaps it hadn't. The world continued to turn, lives continued on as usual…but _Bairdan _had been altered, her king dead before his time.

The horse continued to eat.

Rafe swallowed the lump in his throat shakily. Could he really do this so soon? He looked back at the prince just as a large white horse danced away from him….There was no other way.

The stable master clicked to the horse in the stall to call him over, and then turned back to the prince.

"Prince Daniel," he called, his voice subdued by what he was about to do. The teen looked up, blushing at the unfamiliar title, before coming closer.

"Uh…Yes, Rafe?" Danny responded politely. Curiously, he glanced at the horse.

"This..This is Morning's Glory," the large man introduced, patting the horse on the nose. "He is – was – King Garrett's favorite…"

Danny's eyes widened at this revelation. He hardly breathed as he turned to face the chestnut-colored horse. Slowly, _slowly_ he approached the stall door and reached out to pet the horse's nose…

Rafe watched as the prince edged closer to Morning's Glory, the boy's anxiety clear on his face. Rafe prayed that the horse would accept him. It was disheartening to see the prince rejected over and over again.

Danny inched closer until his fingers touched the soft snout.

It felt like a stab in the heart when even his uncle's horse flinched at his touch.

He pulled away, curling his fingers as he let his hand drop to his side.

He closed his eyes and turned away.

…He should've known better.

A familiar snort met his ears.

Startled, Danny opened his eyes to see the black horse from the night before staring out of its stall. There was a replying, harsher snort from behind him as Morning's Glory turned away.

Danny raised an eyebrow – if he didn't know any better, he'd think the black horse was _laughing_ at the chestnut.

Rafe looked back and forth between the troublesome black horse and the prince whose disappointed frown was becoming thoughtful. Seeing where this was going, he became alarmed.

"Your Highness," Rafe spoke, a cautioning edge to his voice, "careful. That one isn't trained for riding, he's too wild."

"Wild?" Danny turned his confused stare to the redhead.

"He'll buck any rider that gets on 'im," Rafe explained. "We've been thinking about selling him, see if a change in location would help."

Danny's eyes widened. He didn't seem that bad!

He frowned. "Are you sure…?"

Rafe narrowed his eyes indignantly, "I've been taking care of horses _my whole life._ Yes, I am _sure._"

Danny cringed away from the glare. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean –!...It's just…"

Rafe relaxed some, his eyes softening at the flustered royal as the boy trailed off.

"Just what, Lad?" he asked kindly.

"…The only one that didn't freak out," Danny finished pathetically.

…Amity Park…

Valerie huffed as she forced herself to do another chin-up, glaring at her wanted poster.

_How could he._

She let herself sink below the bar before forcing herself up once more, her arms shaking from the strain.

_I_ TRUSTED_ him!_

Frustrated tears sprung to her eyes as she berated herself for falling so easily into his hands. She let go of the bar and carefully shook out her sore muscles.

_How many times did I do his dirty work?_

She'd gone over these thoughts a thousand and one times since that night back in November. The night she'd discovered that her benefactor was nothing less than a monster. The night she'd found out that he had been cultivating her hatred, her _vendetta_, against Danny Phantom and used her as little more than a pawn.

The night she'd stopped hating Phantom.

Valerie spun and swung a particularly savage punch at her punching bag before catching it as it drifted back to her and hanging onto it, exhausted. She let her eyes go out of focus as she tried to regain her composure – and her breath.

Why couldn't she hate him anymore? She'd done everything she could to muster up the old anger, to hold onto the heated grudge, but it wasn't working.

She tried to remember how he'd cost her everything; instead all she could remember was his broken form as he grieved for the cousin he'd thought he'd lost – or the desperation in his voice when he found out that she'd sent the kid straight into the lion's den. That didn't mean she trusted the ghost…

…But, sometimes, when she wasn't thinking about it, she found herself hesitating to attack him….

Doo dodo do da….Doo dodo do da…

The huntress jolted from her troubling thoughts as her phone began to ring incessantly. She wanted to ignore it. After all, it was probably only Star calling to tell her about a sale that would allow her to buy clothes that could get her back in with the A-list. She really was tempted to just let it go to voice-mail…but Star was one of her only friends.

Groaning, she let go of the punching bag and slumped over to her bed where she'd tossed her phone when she got home.

"Hello?"

"Ah, Ms. Gray, how have you been?"

Valerie's face contorted in absolute rage and no small amount of disgust at the slimy voice. She didn't know whether to spit into the phone that she knew who and _what_ he was – or fling the phone as far away as she could.

"Ms. Gray?"

"Wha- Oh, uh," Valerie cringed, deciding to play it safe and _not _let him know how much she hated him. "Sorry, Mr. Masters, I uh, got distracted."

"Quite alright, Dear Girl, I – "

"Wait," Valerie stopped him, realizing something, "how did you know I would answer? It's a school day."

_Is he watching me? _The thought unnerved her more than she could describe, especially since it had been a little more than two months since the last time he'd contacted her.

"Well, I am the mayor, so I was told the school was closed due to a ghost attack."

"Oh, uh, right," Valerie commented. She still didn't trust him. She _hated _what she had to ask next – she didn't want to be manipulated again – but she couldn't let on that she knew his secret.

Before she could ask what job he wanted her to do this time, however, the vile man spoke up again.

"Actually, the attack on the school is why I'm calling."

"Oh? What about it?" Valerie asked, suspicious. The attack had been moderately severe, but no worse than was usual for the frequently haunted high school. The only reason the students had been let out early was because the Fenton's hadn't been there to fight the ghost as the _official_ town ghost hunters, and Mr. Lancer wasn't there to help direct students to safety.

"Well, the Fenton's haven't been doing their job and, as I understand it, you are friends with their son?"

"Yyyyeeesss?" she hesitantly replied. What did Danny have to do with any of this?

"Did he say anything about a family trip or some other reason that he and his family would be unavailable?'

Valerie was surprised. She'd been expecting something else. She didn't know _what_ she'd expected, but certainly not something this mundane. Still, she decided to only give him enough information to keep the Fenton's from losing their job because of something so simple as forgetting to give a heads-up that they weren't going to be in town.

"I think he said something about a funeral out of town…" she told him, careful to trail off to sound unsure. For some reason, she really didn't think it was a good idea to give him any more information on her friend's family - something more than the knowledge that he was an evil half-ghost.

…Bairdan….

Rafe looked sympathetically at the boy in front of him, but he couldn't in good conscience saddle the black horse for him.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "I get where you're comin' from, but he's too dangerous."

Danny looked away from the stable master, inexplicably angry. _Dangerous? I've faced far worse than a horse with an attitude! _

Rafe placed his hand on the teen's shoulder. He could tell that the young prince was not happy about his denial, but there was nothing for it.

"Give Morning's Glory a try," he advised. "Now that his pride's been hurt, he might just give you one."

Still feeling upset that he couldn't ride the one horse that actually seemed to _like_ him, Danny nodded.

…

A/N: Hehehe...you, uh, hate me now, don't you? SO! What did you think of Valerie's interaction with Vlad? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	16. The Funeral

A/N: Just a quick thing: I had Rafe stick by his decision to not let Danny ride the black horse (who _will_ make a comeback, just not yet) because no _responsible_ stable-master would allow an _inexperienced_ _rider _to mount an _untrained_ horse. That's dangerous.

Disclaimed.

…Bairdan, Saturday…

Danny stared at his reflection. It was so strange to see himself in a suit after so long. In fact, he hadn't worn one since the Homecoming dance Freshman year, having decided that going to the dances was pointless when he knew he'd just miss them.

He wished he was going to a dance. If he was going to a dance…it would mean his uncle wasn't dead, and he'd be just another teenager.

He straightened his tie and grabbed his new, black wool coat. With one last glance to make sure he was presentable, he left to join his family before heading to the stables to get their horses.

…Amity Park…

"Funeral's today," Tucker mentioned as he and Sam made their way to their usual booth at Nasty Burger.

"Yep," Sam said. She sent a glare at some kid that was looking at them funny. They'd been getting strange looks every time they hung out together as though people couldn't believe that the Goth and the techno-geek were actually friends when Danny wasn't around.

Tucker bit into his burger to occupy himself during the awkward moment. It wasn't often that they happened between the two friends – they could usually occupy their time with arguments about meat vs. veggies, ghost hunting, and video games. They were so used to being a trio, however, that sometimes there would be a pause in the conversation as they waited for a third voice to speak up.

Tucker swallowed. "How do you think they're handling it? Not the grieving stuff, but, you know, facing all those people?"

Sam cracked a small smile at this. "Jazz is probably fine, but, well, you know Danny…"

Tucker chuckled as they finished in unison, "_Mr. Modesty!_"

…Bairdan…

Danny mounted Morning's Glory and guided the horse into line behind Jazz and Butternut. He still wasn't very confident in a saddle, but felt that for only two lessons he was pretty good. At least, he was confident enough that the gentle sway of the horse's gait as the procession moved forward didn't worry him like it did at first. He felt bad for his sister though – the usually fast learner was still extremely uncomfortable riding. Rafe stayed nearby, mounted on his own horse Bailey, just in case.

Danny looked around at his family, from his Aunt Clara, parents, and sister in front of him, to his Aunt Alicia and Uncle Will behind him.

It was probably the first time he'd ever seen tears in his reclusive aunt's eyes.

…...Amity Park…

Valerie paced her room, occasionally lashing out with her fist at her punching bag or kicking out into thin air to release her tension.

There was _something _she was missing. She knew it. Why _else _would she feel so agitated that Vlad asked about the Fenton's when she knew he wasn't just the mayor, he was their _friend_?

"There's gotta be something!" she muttered.

_But _WHAT?

She could just confront the man?

"NO!" she shouted. She couldn't do that! "No, no, no!"

"_Valerie?_" her father called through her door.

Valerie cringed – she hadn't even realized he was home!

"I'm fine, Daddy!" she called back but froze as it finally hit her.

"He wasn't joking," she gasped. Her eyes widened in horror as she remembered her first real conversation with Vlad Masters nearly two years ago. "_He wasn't joking!_"

The girl dropped down heavily onto the edge of her bed.

"He wants to kill Danny's _dad!_" she whispered, shocked by what she'd just discovered and by her own blindness all this time.

…Bairdan…

Jack sat tall in his saddle as the funeral progressed and tearful eulogies were given. To most of the people in attendance, he looked noble and strong as he waited for his turn to pay his last respects to his brother-in-law. Only his son saw how much he was trembling, or how tightly his jaw was clenched in grief.

Danny looked away from his father and squeezed his eyes shut against the tears that wanted to flow. Jazz allowed herself to cry openly and only looked away from the queen, who was speaking, when her brother set a comforting hand on her shoulder. The whole family was sitting side by side, still astride their horses.

Queen Clara finished her eulogy and introduced Princess Madeline as the next speaker.

Maddie prodded her horse forward a few steps to make herself more visible. Even so, it was a moment before she could speak, her lips pressed together and her eyes closed as tears silently slid down her cheeks.

When still she did not speak, her husband nudged his horse forward a step or two and placed a warm hand on her back to steady her. She looked back at him with a grateful smile before turning and beginning her speech. Of the Fenton's, only she and Jack would be speaking. This was partly because the teens had only known Garrett through letters and brief visits during their childhood when he was only their uncle and not a king, but mostly it was to shield them from the press.

Danny didn't mind not being allowed to talk – he just didn't know what he _could _say and he was never very comfortable speaking in front of large crowds anyway. Jazz was a better public speaker, he knew… it made him wonder for the first time whether he would be good enough for Bairdan or not. After all, didn't kings make speeches all the time?

It was Jack's turn to speak. He fumbled awkwardly over his first few words before his speech smoothed and his heartfelt words became stronger and more fluid.

Danny frowned a little in confusion; he'd seen his dad speak in public a hundred times in the past without a problem, so why was he having trouble now? Looking back, though, he realized that the only times he'd heard his dad talk in front of people had been during an emergency and when he was blabbering on about ghosts.

…This wasn't blabbering, though, and Danny found himself incredibly proud to be his son as he listened to his dad finish the moving speech. Looking at Jazz, he could see that in that moment, she felt the same.

With the eulogies through and the coffin being lowered into the ground, the royal family rode west into the sunset, as was tradition.

…

A/N: The conversation that Valerie is remembering with Vlad is the one during _Reign Storm_ while he gives her the Ring of Rage and flat-out tells her that he wants to kill Jack Fenton and passes the confession off as a joke. He does the same thing with Jack to an extent in the same special. I didn't go into detail about the funeral or give you the eulogies because (a) I have no idea how those would go and (b) I think the lack of dialogue gives a bigger impact.

Moving on from that, what did you think of the funeral? Did you like Sam and Tucker? Was Valerie's revelation and how she came to it good? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!

P.S. Updates may slow down while I work on stuff for school, but I will continue writing when I can. Please don't rush me because school comes first.


	17. Dear Jack

A/N: Hello there! I know it's been a long time, but this chapter's long to make up for that. Still, it will probably be a long wait for the next update since I'm heading into finals week at school on top of the holiday season.

Disclaimed.

…Bairdan…

Danny slumped in his seat trying desperately to stay awake. It seemed that no matter where he was, Lancer was an incredibly boring teacher. They were in a rarely-used study in the castle for the lessons that the teacher had insisted on continuing during this trip. They were supposed to have the weekend off like usual, but because Danny had passed out practically the first day and more than half of the second, they were making it up on Sunday.

"Danny," Will said, frustrated. Why couldn't his nephew just pay attention? "Please stay awake."

The prince blinked up at him before forcing himself to sit up straighter.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

Mr. Lancer sat back in his own seat, set the math book down, and just observed his nephew. Danny had been distracted all week. Logically, he knew that grief could do this, which was why he'd insisted on having lessons. He needed the distraction, too.

Still…

"What's wrong?" he asked. When his nephew only raised an eyebrow, he elaborated, "Aside from the obvious."

Danny looked up at his uncle and exhaled, his shoulders dropping with the action.

"It's nothing," he lied. Will just crossed his arms, not fooled in the least.

"You've been more distracted than usual this week," he commented. "I know that you miss Garrett – I miss him, too – and that a great deal has changed in your life in a very short time, but you can't continue moping around like this. You need to try to live your life in spite of it all."

Danny gave him a tired, sad smile. "I know. I'm just…trying to figure some stuff out. Hey, um, do you know…when Parliament is going to make their decision? About my parents, I mean.'

Will gave him a long, hard look before he replied.

"Is that what's bothering you?"

Danny kept quiet – there was just no point answering the question when his uncle already knew the answer.

Will nodded in silent agreement with Danny's response.

"They're deliberating today."

…Amity Park…

Valerie glided past ice-coated branches and outflew one of the few birds that had decided to brave the elements instead of flying South. She wasn't pursuing any ghosts or on patrol today. Today, she was just trying to clear her thoughts so she could figure out what to do with her frightening revelation.

Jack Fenton was in danger from a ruthless ghost, and he didn't even know it. The man thought that the very ghost that was out for his blood was his very human best friend.

What was she supposed to _do?_

Red Huntress slowed to a hover and closed her eyes. Opening them, she whispered to no one in particular, "What am I supposed to do?"

…Manson Mansion

"I'm impressed," Sam commented dryly into the phone. "You almost made it through the whole week."

"_Huh?_" was the intelligent response. Sam smirked. She knew she shouldn't, but messing with Danny's head was just too easy.

"The last time you went on a trip that lasted longer than a weekend, you called after only two days and from that, every _two minutes_ to make sure the town was alright," she teased.

"…," greeted her. "That's not fair."

"Neither was you waking me up every two minutes," she answered.

"I'm…never going to live that down, am I?"

"Nope!" Sam exclaimed gleefully. Danny's only response was an amused groan. "So, what's up?"

"Well, besides the _apparently obvious_," Sam snickered at this, "I've got a few minutes to talk. So, just to get this out of the way: how's the stinkin' town?"

Sam smirked at his annoyed tone. "The _stinkin' town_ is doing just fine…Stop sticking your tongue out at the phone."

This comment was rewarded with spluttering protests from the other end…she really knew him too well.

"…You're mean."

"_Goth,_" she sang, leaning back in her seat. "But, seriously, what's going on? Jazz never called back."

"How did I know that was going to come up?" he muttered.

"_Danny_," she said warningly to keep him from stalling. She really wanted to know what happened to him the other day.

"It was _nothing_," he insisted. "I just didn't get much sleep between finding out I'm a prince, that Mr. Lancer's my uncle, that my uncle Garrett was dying and then _dead_, _and_ worrying about Jazz because of how this affects her!"

Sam was silent after this outburst. She had been going to ask him about what Jazz had asked about his reaction to "clones," but held back. She and Tucker, and even Jazz, sometimes forgot just how much Danny went through in a day and to top it off with all of _that_ and that thing about clones? She wasn't going to pester him about it…at least not yet.

"…I'm sorry," Sam apologized. "I was just worried."

"I-I know, and I'm sorry I snapped at you. It's just…I don't know… a lot going on at once, I guess."

"Yeah."

There was silence again as the two friends were lost in their own thoughts.

"I'm gonna have a legal guardian when I get back."

Sam jolted at Danny's unexpected announcement.

"_What?_" she gasped, gripping the armrest.

"I'm gonna have a legal guardian," Danny repeated quietly. "We-we still don't know if it's going to be right away or-or after summer –"

"But, _why?_" Sam spluttered. Why wouldn't Danny's parents be coming home with him and Jazz…unless –? Sam closed her eyes as she realized what it must mean. It hadn't even crossed her mind before.

"Uncle Garrett didn't have kids," Danny replied, though his tone indicated that he knew she'd figured it out. "My mom's the next in line."

She could barely hear him.

There was another pause in the conversation as Sam contemplated what this meant for her friend and his family.

"So that's why Jazz…?" Sam muttered and then swallowed. "Who's your…guardian?"

For a minute, all Sam could hear was Danny's steady breathing on the other end.

"…We don't know yet."

…Bairdan…

Jack scratched at his collar as he made it through the maze of hallways back to his and Maddie's suite – he'd already gotten lost twice! Finally, he found the right corridor – or had he? He stopped where he was and looked around. This whole place was so confusing with everything looking the same.

It was with great relief that his eyes landed on their door.

Once he was inside, he closed the door behind him and slumped onto one of the couches with a sigh. Maddie had left with Clara earlier to try to convince Parliament that they needed a few months to get their stuff straightened out, Jazz was studying for a test she'd have to make up when they got back, and Danny was making up the tutoring session he'd missed with Will, which left Jack on his own.

He'd tried hanging out with Rafe in the stables, but he just didn't get all that horse stuff. Sure, he could ride, but he was only marginally better than Danny and Jazz. Then, of course, Alicia had come for one more try at that black horse, so Jack had politely excused himself and returned to the castle.

Maybe he could watch some T.V….

"Now, where'd I put that remote?" Jack muttered, patting the couch. When he couldn't find it in the cushions, where it usually was at home, he looked on the coffee table. It wasn't there, but he stopped looking for it when he saw what was: a black, leather-bound book with an envelope with his name on it sitting on top.

"What's this?"

He picked up the unfamiliar items to look at them more closely. The book was fairly nondescript except for a silver lock identifying it as someone's journal. Figuring that the envelope might give some sort of explanation – and maybe the key, judging by the weight – Jack opened it. Sure enough, a tiny silver key fell out with a letter.

Placing the key carefully on the journal on the coffee table, Jack opened the letter and began to read:

_Dear Jack,_

_Garrett told me to give this to you in the hope that it would help you._

_With love,_

_Clara._

Jack lowered the short note and stared at the journal, _Garrett's journal, _sitting like a weight on the low table in front of him. He leaned forward and set the letter down before picking up the book and its key with shaking hands.

He felt cold, like he was doing something incredibly wrong and any minute now, someone was going to catch him. Still, Garrett had wanted him to have it. Him! Jack! And he thought it would help.

Jack took a deep breath and plunged the key into the lock. He paused before turning it, though – it still felt wrong somehow.

He took another deep breath; he had to do this.

"…Thank you, Gary," he whispered as he finally twisted the key. He carefully pulled back the strap that held the journal closed and opened his brother-in-law's last gift.

There was another envelope just inside. This one contained a letter from Garrett. The handwriting was sloppier than usual, but Jack supposed that was because Garrett was already very sick when he wrote it.

_Dear Jack,_

_I'm not going to go into the whole "If you are reading this" part because, quite frankly, it's redundant._

Jack gave an involuntary snort at the joke. Leave it to Gary to make him laugh when he wanted to cry.

_This is the journal I've kept since my coronation. It contains everything that I've learned about being a king, along with a few things that I felt were particularly important. You will find some tips about how to deal with certain diplomats you will probably meet, how to avoid accidentally insulting foreign dignitaries (like I have done. Oops!), and the like._

_There is also one other thing in this journal that will interest you: I know Danny's secret._

Jack nearly dropped the letter in shock. _Gary knew?_ It was in this journal? He couldn't believe it! He was finally going to know what kind of trouble his son was getting into!

He quickly grabbed the journal, ready to flip through and learn the truth when a thought struck him and his excitement dissipated.

_How did Gary know? Did Danny tell him?_

He set the journal back down.

He picked up the letter again and continued to read.

_I know you and Maddie have been worried about him for some time now and that is how I figured it out: from your letters, and Will's, and even a few of Jazz's e-mails. I don't know all of the details, but I do know one thing for certain: You should be incredibly proud of your son._

_I will leave it up to you what you do with this information, but whatever you decide, you are a great father to Danny and Jazz. I am also proud to have known you as my brother-in-law, and it is for these reasons that I know you will be a great king to my country._

_Jack, being a king is not ghost hunting, I know, and therefore not what you saw in your future, but it is not all boring state dinners and making speeches. There are also charity events where you get to see the good that's being done, meeting new people from around the world, and traveling to the most incredible places. It's not the end of the world._

_I wish you the best of luck._

_Love, _

_Gary._

Jack closed his eyes as he finished and took a deep, shaky breath.

He'd almost forgotten.

No. In his excitement at the prospect of finding out what was going on with his son, he _had_ forgotten.

He was going to be king.

No more ghost hunting.

He placed the journal in his pocket and left. He needed to clear his head and he hoped that a walk would do the trick.

What should he do? What was he _supposed_ to do?

He kept thinking about this, hardly paying attention as he navigated the same hallways that had confused him earlier and not even thinking about it as he nodded to a security guard at the garden door. He barely noticed the chill as he paced through the garden.

Sure, Garrett had said he would make a great king, but how could he know? What did being a good dad and brother have to do with ruling a country?

How would he ever be good enough? Especially when it was his brother-in-law in another _country_ who figured out his son and not _him?_

Jack stopped in his tracks and sank heavily onto a snow-covered garden bench. He only vaguely realized that he'd left his coat inside.

How was a simple ghost hunter supposed to be a king?

He didn't know, and he was afraid. He lowered his face into his hands, his whole body shaking with the uncertainties.

…

A/N: So, what did you think of this long-overdue update? What did you think of Valerie's turmoil? Did you laugh at Danny's expense with Sam? What did you think of Jack's uncertainty? Did Garrett really know Danny's secret, or only think he knew? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	18. Talking

A/N: Happy Holidays!

Disclaimed.

…Bairdan…

"You need to just sell him, Rafe," Alicia advised, closing the black horse's stall.

"I know, I know," Rafe sighed. Logically, he knew she was right. The problem came in that it just didn't _feel_ right, and Rafe had learned years ago to trust his instincts. He had knownthat Morning's Glory would grow into a fine horse despite being born much smaller than normal; he knew Alicia's ex-husband was a rat, and he _knew_ that there was something special about this horse. Why else would King Garrett work with him personally from the day the horse was born?

"If you know, then why haven't you?" she demanded, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

Rafe didn't answer right away. Instead, he paced restlessly in front of her.

Alicia stared him down; she wanted to know what had the usually calm man so agitated. It was just a simple question.

"I don't know," he finally answered, stopping and running a hand down his face. He sighed; how was he supposed to explain this to her?

"I guess…something just feels _wrong_ about it," he continued. "Especially…"

"Especially _what?_" Alicia demanded, scowling. Why couldn't he ever just get to a point without the pit-stops?

"Especially after what happened with your nephew," Rafe told her, not wanting to bring up the subject of her brother. "I don't regret telling him that he couldn't ride this horse, but I sure as _hell_ wanted to let him try."

Alicia raised an eyebrow at this: Rafe was usually a better judge of character. She loved her nephew, but after everything Maddie had told her about his behavior, she had to wonder just what kind of person he was. He certainly wasn't responsible.

"All the more reason to get rid of the wild thing, I say," she told him, walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. "That way you won't be tempted to _give _him that try."

"Aye," Rafe sighed, "I suppose you're right on that."

Alicia gave him a smug look at the admission and a pat on the shoulder before walking away.

"It's gettin' kinda late; I'd better head back in," she told him, glancing at the clock."

"I'll see ya tomorrow, Rafe."

"Goodnight, Princess."

Alicia almost turned at the title but scowled and kept going instead. She'd left that title behind years ago and with good reason. Why was Rafe calling her that now, when he _knew_ she didn't like it?

She shook her head at the thought; it really didn't matter. After all, in a few days she'd be heading back home to Spittoon, where people actually left her alone. She shivered and pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders as she trudged through the snow – she certainly wouldn't miss the cold.

Alicia was almost to the castle doors when she heard something and stopped.

Stopped, and stared.

Her coat was useless against the chill that ran down her spine at the sight of Jack Fenton, _crying._

Her brother-in-law had always been annoying to her and she'd always seen him as an idiot that wasn't _nearly _good enough for her sister, but he had always been boisterous and cheerful.

To see him like this…

Alicia shook herself out of it. This was _Jack_ after all, it was probably nothing. He was a fool! An _idiot!_ The man hadn't even remembered to wear a coat!

With a scowl, she started to turn around to go yell at him to go inside before he got sick. After all, he was going to be the next…king…

Once again, Alicia stopped in her tracks. She remembered all too well what it felt like to have that kind of pressure on your shoulders. On the one hand, he really did need to get out of the cold – or at least put on a coat – but on the other, even she didn't feel right invading his privacy when he was like this.

Maybe she could get Maddie or Will to deal with this? Maddie should be back by now…It was worth a shot.

It wasn't long before she found someone, but it certainly wasn't who she was hoping for.

…Amity Park…

Red Huntress slowed to a hover and closed her eyes. Opening them, she whispered to no one in particular, "What am I supposed to do?"

"Oh, I don't know," a heavily sarcastic voice replied from below. "Go home and do your _project?_"

Valerie cringed at being caught. Oh, she was _in_ for it! Even if she wasn't doing what he thought she was. She nodded and did as she was told.

A few minutes later, she was in her room waiting for her dad to get home to lecture her.

She didn't have to wait long.

"Valerie Gray! I _explicitly _told you you were not allowed to hunt ghosts!" he shouted, angrier than she had seen him in a long time.

She just sat there and took it, still trying to sort out her thoughts and figure out what to do. It wasn't like she hadn't heard this before.

"Valerie!" Damon shouted, getting her attention. "Are you even listening to me?"

She turned to give him a scrutinizing stare. She had to tell _someone._ Out of everything she knew, that was probably the only thing she was completely sure of. After all, she was only sixteen. Could she tell her dad, though? There were only three people besides Vlad who knew she was Red Huntress and there were really only two she thought could do anything about it: her dad and, though she was loathe to admit it even to herself, Danny Phantom. Danielle was just too young and had been through enough at Vlad's hands already.

"Valerie" Damon asked, worried now. Why was she just staring at him like that? Had some ghost done something to her?

She had to tell someone…and she hadn't even _seen_ Phantom in days.

…Bairdan…

"Dad?"

Jack jumped at the voice, though it hadn't been very loud. He quickly wiped away the tears but still tensed when his son came into view. Out of all the people it could have been, why did it have to be Danny?

"Dad?" Danny tried again, sitting next to him. He was really worried now. Aunt Alicia had told him that his dad was crying, but he hadn't expected this. "What's wrong?"

Danny chuckled and looked away solemnly. "Besides the obvious."

Jack cracked a weak grin at the comment but said nothing. He didn't know what to do. Should he brush it off and say it was nothing? Should he say it was just the grief finally getting the better of him?

Somehow, neither idea seemed right.

"I'm just…" Jack started, but stopped as the lump in his throat made it difficult to speak. Danny looked at him, clearly concerned about his father. Jack looked away, hoping it would be easier to face the frozen fountain in front of him. "I…"

No, it was still too hard, so he closed his eyes and forced the words out.

"I'm afraid. I don't know anything about being a king! I'm a ghost hunter! I'm a _scientist!_ I – " Jack gasped, his eyes popping open at his own words; he hadn't meant to say so much.

Nervously, he looked at Danny, expecting to see shock written all across his face. Or maybe to find that he'd scared him away with his honesty.

He didn't expect the look of sympathy – or the comforting hug.

"Who ever said you couldn't be both?"

Jack hugged his son back fiercely. The words didn't make much sense, but, somehow, they helped.

"C'mon, son, let's go inside," he suggested. "I just realized, I'm _freezing!_"

….Amity Park….

Damon paced the living room, which doubled as his bedroom in the small apartment, trying to process everything his daughter had just told him as well as the contract he'd signed just an hour before he'd found her.

Vlad Masters, a ghost!

It was sickening what Valerie had told him about the night she'd found out the truth, about what happened to Phantom's cousin.

He was horrified by what his daughter had been manipulated into being a part of and wanted to destroy the mayor just as much as Valerie had once wanted to kill Phantom, possibly more, but it was Vlad's plans concerning Jack Fenton that were the most urgent. Not just because the man – ghost – whatever he was – needed to be stopped, but because of the contract Damon had just signed.

He had just been offered a job with the Bairdanian Secret Service because of his military experience and a personal recommendation from the recently-deceased king's half-brother. It was a good job, with good pay, and he didn't even have to move to do it.

The problem came in what he should do with this new information, because the royal family he'd just sworn to protect was the _Fenton_ family. By rights, he should report this, but how did he do that without implicating his own daughter and compromising her identity? 

…

A/N: What did you think of Jack's confession to Danny? Were you surprised that Valerie told her dad? Or that her dad has a new job? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!

Merry Christmas and (since I probably won't be updating until the next year) Happy New Year!


	19. Reassurances

A/N: Sorry for the long delay – the other plot bunnies weren't playing fair.

Disclaimed.

…Unknown…

"They're leaving Tuesday morning."

"Do you know where they're headed?" he asked his informant.

"N-no, sir, th-they only referred to it as ho-home."

He ground his teeth, irritated both by the lack of useful information and by his informant's stuttering. The castle staff consisted of _hundreds_. Of all of those people, why did this bumbling idiot have to be the _only_ one he had any leverage against?

"Have you tried _asking?_" he mocked. Honestly, once he became king, he'd have to do something about the country's educational system, because, _clearly_, it wasn't working.

…Bairdan…

"Jack, what's wrong?" Maddie asked worriedly as she sat next to her husband. He'd been so quiet since he came in from the cold; it just wasn't like him.

"Hmm?" Jack responded, still deep in thought.

"Jack," Maddie repeated and this time he actually looked at her. She could tell that he was at least trying to pay attention. "What's wrong?"

For a moment, he considered telling her about Gary's letter and the hope it gave him that they might soon understand what their son was doing. He wanted _so badly_ to confide in her his fears that he would make a terrible king and his sadness that, despite Danny's words, he would have to give up ghost hunting.

But he couldn't. He knew that the minute he told her about the chance at discovering Danny's secret she would demand to see the journal – she wouldn't be able to resist. They both worried about their son but Jack wanted _Danny_ to be the one to tell them, to _trust_ them. As for his fears about being king…he didn't want to worry her.

"I'm fine, Maddie. Just tired," he responded guiltily. He'd never lied to his wife before (at least not about anything more serious than sneaking fudge).

"Well," Maddie looked at him doubtfully. When he gave her a reassuring smile, she accepted his poorly-made excuse. "Alright. I suppose it has been a long day…"

Still, Jack didn't sleep well that night.

…The next day…

Danny was trying to work on the project that had started this whole adventure when there was a light knock on his door. Setting his work aside he got up and let Jazz in, not entirely surprised to see her. They hadn't really had a chance to talk before bed the night before.

"Good morning," he greeted her.

"Morning," she responded.

They sat in companionable silence for a little while. Jazz, out of habit, looking over Danny's homework for errors and Danny trying to read ahead in the book his class was assigned for English. It really was a good book.

"Danny?" Jazz finally spoke.

"Hm?" he responded, quickly finishing the paragraph he was on before giving her his full attention.

Jazz hesitated a moment before continuing. "What did you and Dad talk about last night? He seemed…upset about something."

Danny set his book down as he tried to think of a response. He could tell his sister was worried, so was he, but he didn't know what to do. He could tell her that their dad was just nervous about becoming a king, but…he was pretty sure their dad hadn't meant to say so much. It felt wrong to break his trust. Especially since Danny was so rarely on the receiving end of it these days.

"He's fine, Jazz," Danny assured his sister.

"But-!" she protested, wanting more information.

"_Really,_" he insisted. When she still looked like she wanted to protest, he continued, "Look, he told me some stuff and I really don't think he meant to say as much as he did. I want to show him that I can be trusted."

This last part was said so quietly that Jazz knew her brother was talking more to himself at that point than to her, but it bothered her.

"He already – !"

Danny just looked at her sadly, shaking his head.

"No, Jazz," he refuted quietly. "You and I both know Mom and Dad don't really trust me anymore – I've gotten into too much trouble and left them wondering one too many times."

Jazz wanted to argue more but found that she couldn't, so she dropped the subject.

"He really is okay?"

Danny smiled, relieved that she wasn't pushing the issue. "Yeah, he is."

"Are you?"

Danny stilled for a minute, unsure about how to answer.

"Yeah."

Jazz didn't believe him – he'd hesitated too long. He might be fine with whatever had transpired between him and their dad, but he _wasn't _fine about what had been bothering him all week. The clone thing.

"Danny…"

"Jazz."

Jazz huffed, irritated. Why did her brother have to be so stubborn?

_How can I get him to talk to me? _Obviously he wasn't going to tell her what the problem was – he'd said so multiple times – but there had to be _something_ she could do! Then she thought of what had occurred to her the night he'd passed out.

Danny watched his sister warily; she was thinking. He narrowed his eyes at her as he got ready to face her next ploy for information. He'd have to be careful: Jazz knew her psychology _far_ too well.

"If you're not going to tell me what's wrong," Jazz started – Danny waited for her ultimatum – "at least let me help you find whoever this person is that you say you _will_ talk to."

Danny felt like he'd gotten a solid punch to the gut; he panted for a second as he tried to get his breath back.

Of all the things Jazz could have said – of all the things he had _expected _her to say – _that_ was not one of them and it took Danny a moment to get his head back together.

…

A/N: I know it's short, but what did you think? Did you like the interaction between Jack and Maddie? Between Danny and Jazz? Did you expect Jazz's questions? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!

I'm beginning to think I should have titled this _Family Secrets_…

P.S. Proof that I'm not lying about those troublesome plot-bunnies:

_TrekKing: _Danny must go on a journey, and when he gets there, he find that he has an important decision to make.

_Divide(sequel to TrekKing): _Danny must deal with the consequences of his decision. Will likely be a Dark fic.

_Filing_: Set after _Phantom Planet._ The Guys In White still don't like Danny Phantom, so when they come across a bunch of files that only a ghost can open in Vlad's Colorado chateau, they get the new mayor to deliver them. But while Danny and his friends are looking through the files, one of them upsets Danny and the search is on for a lost Phantom.


	20. Secret Service

A/N: Happy Leap Day! I know this update was a little slow in coming, but at least I got it up before the end of February…barely.

Disclaimed.

…Amity Park…

Jazz chewed on her lip as she tried to concentrate on the physics test sitting in front of her. It had been almost a week since the Fentons and Lancer had returned to Amity Park and everything had gone back to normal. If she wasn't still reeling from Danny's answer to her offer, she might have felt more uncomfortable with the normalcy. It wasn't that she had wanted or expected anything to change while they were away, but she had expected the return to her regular routine to feel more surreal to her after all of the changes in her life.

_Concentrate!_ she ordered herself silently. Physics wasn't usually this hard for the straight-A student – how could it? She was the daughter of scientists after all…and a soon-to-be king and queen. Jazz grimaced – at this rate she'd never get a good grade.

She read through the problem again and this time actually managed to write down an answer. She hoped that was right. She sighed as she turned the next page and was relieved to find it blank. She sat back and looked at the clock: 3:59. She flinched as she realized that she'd finished the timed test she was making up with only a minute to spare – normally she was finished with twenty. Shaking her head at her own lack of focus, the teen got up and gave the test to the teacher for grading.

Jazz turned her thoughts back to her greatest source of distraction as she walked down the hall to her uncle's office: Danny. She was still trying to wrap her head around what he had told her, though it hadn't been much. Still, it was enough for her to work out the rest and it was clear that he was aware of that. After all, he'd insisted that she not ask for confirmation of her suspicions if she did, at least until they'd found her. Danielle. Her _niece._

When the thought had first crossed her mind a few hours after he'd told her about the little girl they had to find, she had wanted desperately to ask him if she was right about this, but then she had remembered how much it seemed to hurt him to tell her what little he had. After that, she'd decided to keep her promise to not ask. Even so, it bugged her. _Why _couldn't she ask? _Why _did it hurt him so much to talk about? About his _daughter?_ Was it because of how she was, for lack of a better word, born? Jazz shook her head, banishing that last thought; Danny didn't think like that.

"Jazz?"

The redhead jumped, startled. She hadn't realized she was at the vice principal's office. She stared at her uncle blankly as she tried to clear her head.

"Are you alright?" Will asked, worried.

"I, uh," Jazz floundered, her mind still too cluttered to say anything intelligible.

Will's brow furrowed as he walked around his desk, shrugging into his coat. What was going on?

"First, his nephew was uncharacteristically moody, and now his niece was preoccupied and at a loss for words.

"Jazz," he pressed, incredibly worried about what was bothering _both_ of his sister's children.

Jazz drew in a breath as she closed her eyes and hugged herself. She felt like she was about to burst from the tension. She opened her eyes but kept them averted.

"I," she hummed nervously. "I know why Danny ran."

She had no intention of telling anyone Danny's newest secret but she needed to say _something_ and that little phrase wasn't just about the revelation she was sure had hit him right then. She now understood that it was guilt for not knowing sooner…and helplessness because he was too far away to do anything about it.

Will's eyebrows raised at this admission: this was not what he'd been expecting. He leaned against his desk. He held no delusions that she would tell him what she had discovered in the past week, but maybe she would let something slip – give him hope that it wasn't as bad as his wild imagination kept telling him.

"I-I was," she stuttered. "I was right – what I said when it happened – everything just-just hit him."

Will contemplated this for a second; there was a deeper meaning to this that only his niece and nephew could understand. It was possible that Ms. Manson and Mr. Foley could, too.

There were tears trailing down Jazz's cheeks, and she was afraid for a moment that she'd said too much. She shook her head, dismissing the notion. After all, Uncle Will didn't have the information that she did – there was no way he could know _what_ she knew when all she'd told him was that she knew _something._

"Can you…," Will tentatively started, uncomfortable. It was a long shot, but he had to ask. "Can you tell me anything? Maybe I can help."

Jazz shook her head sadly. "I don't think I can – Danny didn't even tell me everything. I'm not entirely sure that I'm right."

The girl wiped her face with her hand, trying to regain her composure. Jazz Fenton had never looked so fragile.

"So!" she exclaimed, a forced smile on her face. "You and Pomona are coming to dinner tonight, right?"

Will jumped at the abrupt change in subject, but, sensing that she wouldn't give up anything else, followed her lead.

"Yes," he answered, "yes, we are. I want you all to meet her."

The two chattered about the evening's plans, the tension seeping out of their shoulders as they headed to Will's car, as had become the norm since their return. Well, close to the norm, since Jazz normally drove herself, and sometimes her brother, and Will would follow discretely for added protection. It was one of Parliament's conditions that the royal family has protection at all times, even though only a select few people outside of Bairdan knew who they were.

Jazz thought it was a little silly while Danny was downright _irritated._ Jazz cracked a small smirk at the thought: Danny _would_ be annoyed by a security detail. It made it very difficult to go ghost.

…Amity Park Park…

Danny Phantom dodged the rocket that was headed his way only to have to dodge it again a few seconds later.

"Great," he muttered sarcastically. "It's got a _homing device!_"

He dived into the trees hoping to lose the projectile but with no luck. Even flying intangibly through a few sturdy trunks didn't help!He shot back up into the sky, swooping and dodging as he tried to think.

_Skulker's getting better at making weapons._ He scowled as he headed toward the hunter, guessing that he had some sort of remote – then he heard the cackle.

"Or he's working with Technus," he muttered allowing his eyes to wander the sky even as he dodged another attempt from the rocket. He smirked when he spotted the outdated ghost. This might not be as difficult as he thought.

"Hey, Technus," he said conversationally. "I didn't know you were working for Skulker now."

"WHAT!" Technus screeched. "I, Technus, Master of all things electronic and beeping, work FOR _no one!_ We are working as partners!"

"Really? Huh," Danny scratched his head, faking confusion. He dodged another, much slower attack. _So, Technus is controlling it telekinetically. _"Because, well, I had to figure it out for myself that you were even _part_ of this attack."

Technus's eye-panels narrowed. Danny heard an explosion to his right; his confused façade quickly turned into a smirk.

Too late, Technus realized he'd been played. It was a good thing for him, then, that Skulker launched his older, less technologically advanced missiles at the ghost-child.

Danny grunted as he hit the ground. This was just _not_ his day.

…Nasty Burger…

Damon walked up to the counter to order a burger. He'd been waiting outside, keeping his distance, for close to an hour and was a little hungry.

"Hey, Daddy, what'll it be?" Valerie greeted him.

"Oh, just the usual. Anything new happen today?" he asked, taking a quick look around as she typed in his order. He frowned when he saw Danny's friends but no Danny.

"Not really," his daughter shrugged, handing him his food as he paid. "You?"

"The same," he answered with a shrug of his own. "See you later, Sweetheart."

"See ya," she said and asked the next customer for her order.

Damon found a seat a few tables away from Danny's friends, keeping an eye out for the prince, whom he was sure had just gone to the restroom.

Ten minutes later, he began to wonder. He looked to the boy's friends and saw Tucker get up and head to the restroom. He returned almost immediately and the girl gave him back his PDA, which Damon hadn't even realized the Techno-geek had left behind. Intrigued, he listened in on their conversation in the hopes of finding out what was going on.

"….fine, really," Tucker told a grim-faced Sam. The boy shrugged helplessly. "He said he just wasn't feeling good and he was just gonna head to FentonWorks. Said not to wait up."

"Well…if he's well enough to walk home," Sam conceded. She seemed reluctant. "Still, I'd rather not deal with my parents just yet. Wanna head to the park?"

Tucker shrugged, "Might as well. We both know that if I stay near Danny when _he's_ sick, _I'm_ gonna come down with something."

"True." Sam smirked as the two left.

Damon narrowed his eyes – _something _was going on. He waited an extra fifteen minutes for Danny to emerge before he decided that the boy was probably worse than he told his friend and went in to check on him himself.

Danny was just coming out of a stall looking tired and a little sweaty when Damon came through the door.

"You alright?" Mr. Gray asked. Danny looked up from washing his hands, surprised to see the older man.

"Huh? Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," he said. Mr. Gray didn't look particularly convinced.

"Are you sure?" Mr. Gray persisted. "You look a little pale."

"Yeah," Danny insisted. Why was Mr. Gray acting so weird? "Yeah. It's probably just some twenty-four hour…"

Danny's eyes widened as it suddenly clicked why Mr. Gray was acting the way he was. The question was: how should he ask to find out?

"You…work with my uncle," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "don't you?"

Mr. Gray chuckled, only slightly surprised that the boy had figured it out. "Yeah, I do."

Danny frowned, feeling even more guilty for not having told Valerie yet.

"Why didn't anyone tell me? I would've told Valerie sooner!"

Mr. Gray blinked, surprised by Danny's reaction, but happy that Danny had intended to tell his daughter.

"Well," he began to explain, "we thought if you knew, it would feel too intrusive."

Danny nodded, "I…guess it makes sense."

"Come on, I'll give you a ride home," Damon offered. When Danny looked like he was about to protest, Damon held up a hand. "Even twenty-four hour bugs can be pretty bad."

Danny's shoulders dropped and he smiled wryly – he was pretty tired. "Thanks."

After the two left, one of the stalls opened and a very confused Dash Baxter walked out.

…

A/N: Finally, a ghost fight! What did you think of Jazz's turmoil? Did you like the interaction between Danny and Mr. Gray? Are you curious about what's going to happen with Dash? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	21. Paulina and Pomona

A/N: My explanation for the long wait begins with a dead hard-drive and ends with BBC's _Merlin_ with getting used to a new job somewhere in between. In other words, life happened. Even so, I get the feeling that I'm going to be writing this story for a long time…

Disclaimed.

…...Amity Park…

Paulina scowled as she grudgingly followed her mother and her stupid, evil, future-stepfather of a teacher out to the man's ugly old car. If anyone saw her…she was pretty sure she'd die of embarrassment. For the first time in two years, Paulina Sanchez did _not _want her beloved ghost boy to rescue her – what would he _think?_

"So where _exactly_ are we going again?" she demanded for what felt like the tenth time that night.

Pomona sighed and turned to face her daughter. "We're going to have dinner with Will's family."

Paulina rolled her eyes. "Well, _duh!_ I meant, like, what restaurant?"

Maybe she could complain about that, too.

The adults shared a nervous glance, something that did not go unnoticed by the petulant teen. Paulina narrowed her eyes while inside she was panicking – what if it was somewhere her friends would see?

Mr. Lancer cleared his throat uncomfortably before finally giving her a straight answer.

…FentonWorks…

"Well, this should be interesting," Danny muttered to his sister as their uncle's car pulled into their driveway. It hadn't been until after Mr. Gray had dropped him off at home that Danny had remembered that his uncle was bringing his fiancé and her daughter over for dinner. He still felt bad about not telling his friends why they couldn't come to hang out that night, but he'd made a promise.

Jazz joined her brother by the window and had to suppress a wince at the stormy expression on the Latina teen's face as she got out of the car. The siblings looked at each other and exchanged nervous grins before joining their parents in greeting their guests.

Pomona smiled at them and greeted them warmly but both Danny and Jazz could see she was tense. Whether it was nerves about meeting her future in-laws for the first time or fear that her reluctant daughter would do or say something insulting or some combination of the two, they couldn't be sure. Still, Jazz resolved to join her parents in making her feel welcome.

Danny took the more frightening – and potentially dangerous – task of dealing with Paulina.

"If you so much as breath a _word_ of this to _anyone,_ any chance you had at a social life is _history!_" Paulina hissed.

_Oh. Oh, she did _not_ just give him that!_ This was just too easy. After all, he had even_ more _reasons to want to go unnoticed than ever before.

"Promise?" he asked, giving her his cheekiest grin.

The popular girl gaped at him in shock.

Danny let the grin drop into a more sincere expression before he continued. "Paulina, I don't _want_ to be popular. Right now, I just want to keep sliding under the radar while I can."

Paulina's shock turned into disbelief before she quickly schooled her features into her cruelest smirk.

"Oh, please," she scoffed. "_Every_body wants to be popular."

Pomona glanced over at her daughter and Will's nephew apprehensively. When she saw her daughter smirk like that, she knew what it meant. Before she could intervene, however, Will's nephew did something surprising: he chuckled.

"Meh, popularity's a bit overrated, don't you think?"

Paulina seemed to flounder for a moment in response to that before leveling a furious glare at the boy.

"If you tell _anyone –!_"

Will's nephew shook his head, chuckling some more.

"You do realize I'm related to Lancer by _blood_, don't you? If I out you, I out myself."

Pomona heard a different chuckle from right next to her.

"It surprised me, too, at first."

Pomona smiled and turned to face her fiancé.

"Still, I know how vicious my Paulina can be when she chooses."

Maddie gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

Jazz grinned amusedly. "This isn't the first time Danny's had to deal with a teenaged girl with a grudge, and, judging from his track record, it probably won't be the last." Maddie quirked an eyebrow at this, but said nothing.

"Yeah!" Jack grinned. "Danny's a Fenton and we Fentons can handle anything!"

Maddie smiled at her husband's enthusiasm but made a mental note to talk to Jazz or Danny later about who this girl with a grudge was that Jazz had mentioned.

"Come on, everyone, dinner's on the table," she gestured toward the kitchen. Danny and the still-fuming Paulina followed after everyone else.

Conversation during dinner consisted mostly of small talk – most of it centering on Pomona as the Fentons tried to get to know her better. Danny looked at his future aunt and noticed the resemblance between her and her daughter almost immediately, though there were some differences. Where Paulina's eyes were a light bluish-green, Pomona's eyes were a rich brown that was almost black. Where Paulina's hair was long, Pomona's was cut into a short stylish bob, though both mother and daughter's hair was thick, wavy, and brown. Where Paulina was harsh and manipulative, Pomona was gentle and kind. Danny couldn't help but like his future aunt, even if it was still weird to think that Paulina was going to be his cousin.

It wasn't until almost everyone had finished their meals that talk turned from harmless small talk to a much more delicate subject.

"So, Will tells me that you and Jack are going to be out of town for a while?" Pomona asked politely. She knew that this conversation was going to be tricky since her daughter didn't know that Maddie was going to be a queen soon, but she was curious.

Maddie paused a moment and her eyes flickered briefly to Paulina before she answered carefully.

"That is correct," she said her expression tense. "Jack and I will be living out of the country for about three to five years once Jazz graduates from high school."

"It'll be three, Mom," Jazz insisted, her voice strained. Danny shot his sister and annoyed look.

"No, sorry, but, uh,, it's going to be five years."

Jack and Maddie shared a glance while Jazz glared daggers at her little brother. Danny just crossed his arms in response to his sister and held his ground.

Pomona bit her lip feeling guilty for even bringing it up. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her daughter watching everything with an indignant but confused look on her face, obviously aware that she was being left out of _something_ even if she didn't know what.

'Yes, well, um," Will cleared his throat, trying to break the tension, "in the meantime, Jazz will be going to college in the fall and Danny will continue living in Amity Park and attending Casper High under the supervision of a legal guardian."

"Yeah, about that," Danny cut in, breaking the staring contest with his sister in favor of joining the conversation about his fate short-term, "who is that going to be anyway? I mean, Mom and Dad are going to Ba-_be_ out of town next week to do some prep stuff and let's face it, that's probably going to happen a lot in the next few months. Stupid Par-uh, you-know-who."

Paulina narrowed her eyes at the loser, trying to figure out what he knew that she didn't.

"Well, we thought about asking Mr. and Mrs. Foley but…heh, heh," Jack answered, a wry grin crossing his face.

Danny grinned back. "But every time Tuck gets sick, so do I and vice versa. And Sam's parent's hate me, so…"

Maddie and Jack shared a knowing look; the adult Mansons' dislike of their son wasn't the only reason they hadn't been considered for guardianship.

Jazz looked between her brother and their parents as well as their guests, an idea forming in her head.

"What about UncleWill?"

Every eye turned to look at the redhead in surprise at her abrupt suggestion. Seeing this, Jazz decided to elaborate.

"Well, I mean, it's better for Danny if he continues to live at home, not just psychologically, but because it'll be easier to maintain the lab and Ops Center and change the ecto-filtrator. You're still looking for a new place for after the wedding, right?"

It took Will a moment to realize that she was addressing him, but once he did he answered hesitantly. "Uh, yes?"

Jazz nodded at the confirmation as she continued her rant. "Living at FentonWorks in the meantime could help in the transition from apartment to house. Not to mention Danny is familiar with you, even if he's still adjusting to the fact that you're family."

Everyone sat stunned after Jazz's explanation was finished but Danny was studying his uncle thoughtfully, having gotten over is shock faster than the others due to his ghost fighting experience. It was a weird idea, but he found that he didn't hate it.

"It…could work," he thought aloud. "I mean, as Vice Principal, you know what trouble I sometimes land in at school and I mean, if I'm having trouble with homework, it would be better to ask you than interrupt Jazz's study time."

Finally breaking out of her own shock, Maddie considered the idea – it certainly had its merits. A quick look at her husband showed that he was thinking along the same lines.

"Actually…that's not a bad idea," Maddie commented. "Of course, it's entirely up to you, Will."

Shaking off his own bewilderment, Will responded. "No, not _entirely_ up to me. Pom, this affects you and Paulina as well?"

"If you are up to it, then so am I," Pomona responded firmly. Paulina glared at them all.

…

A/N: What do you think of Pom now that you've met her? Did the confrontation between Danny and Paulina make you laugh? Tell me in a review and as alwaysALOHA!


	22. Anger

A/N: Writer's block sucks. This chapter only took so long because I had to deal with a cross between this and a busy work schedule. On to the chapter.

Disclaimed.

…Casper High Cafeteria….

"_Lancer's_ your legal guardian!" Tucker gasped, not even trying to contain his laughter.

"_Would you keep it _down!" Danny hissed at his friend, glancing around warily. Why did Tucker have to be such a Big Mouth? "I don't exactly want everyone to know that."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Could be worse – didn't your dad suggest Vlad?"

Danny cringed. "Yeah, that reminds me: we've really got to be more careful about what we say at school. Lancer's _way _more observant than we thought. I mean, I'm glad that it meant Lancer could speak up against that catastrophe, but what if he hears something else? If he finds out…."

"He won't find out, we'll just have to be more careful," Sam reasoned. "Especially you two."

"HEY!"

…

Dash scowled at the loser trio as they argued. They were probably just talking about some lame movie they'd seen over the weekend, but what if they weren't? What if they were talking about whatever it was that he'd overheard Fenton and Mr. Gray talking about at the _Nasty Burger?_ What could _Danny Fenton's_ uncle be involved in that he'd needed to be so secretive about?

Dash hated being confused. Maybe he could beat some answers out of him? It _had _been awhile – certainly long enough since the funeral for it to be okay - but he didn't think he'd get an answer. After all, Fenton may be a loser, but he was a stubborn one.

Dash's scowl deepened. He would just have to watch the loser until he let something slip.

The star quarterback was so focused on figuring out what was going on that he failed to notice that he wasn't the only one glaring curiously at the trio. The Latina sitting right across from him chewed lightly on her bottom lip as she tried to puzzle out what the Fenton Family Secret was. Danny had almost slipped up at least twice at dinner and it irritated her that he'd managed to catch himself both times. Still, he was clearly the weakest link.

She had to think of something! Maybe she could get Dash to beat it out of him? But, no, that would mean _telling_ him that Lancer was going to be her – _GAG!_ – stepfather and that was _so_ not happening.

It was bad enough that Danny was probably telling the Goth Geek and Techno-Weirdo that her mother was marrying that stupid teacher. If that got out, she'd be ruined. The ghost boy would never look at her again!

…

"…know I'm right," Sam glared. Danny glared right back, his eyes slightly glowing.

"No, I _don't_ know that! She _has_ a right to know, Sam!" Danny argued. Tucker looked between his two friends nervously. He agreed with Danny on this one, but his shins were telling him to keep out of this one.

"You can't _trust_ her!" Sam spat, her hands curling into fists. Neither one seemed conscious of the fact that they were both now standing. Even Tucker wasn't entirely certain when it had happened, but he was starting to get worried. He didn't think they would get into an actual fight, but he was starting to doubt that assertion.

"It's not like I'm telling her about _you-know-what!_ Her dad is all she has left – I won't force him to lie to her!"

"FINE!" she shouted and then lowered her voice to a venomous hiss when she realized that she had. "Go ahead and tell her! You can tell _Paulina_ while you're at it!"

For a moment, Tucker thought that Sam had actually slapped Danny the halfa looked so shocked. A half-second later Danny snapped his jaw closed, his face turning red in his anger.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What does _Paulina_ have to do with this?" he growled through gritted teeth.

"Oh, _I_ don't know!" Sam sneered, bitingly. "Why don't _you_ tell _me?_ She was at _your_ house last night!"

"You were _spying_ on me?" he exclaimed, baring his teeth.

"You _blew us off _without any kind of explanation! What was I _supposed _to do?" she asked, barely managing to keep her voice down. "That only happens for one of _three_ reasons, and all of them usually mean trouble!"

Danny appeared speechless in his fury. He opened and closed his mouth several times before clamping it shut. Shaking his head, he turned and stormed out of the utterly silent cafeteria.

"MR. FENTON!"

Danny ignored the call and kept running until he was out of the school.

Mr. Lancer huffed as he made it to the doors nearly half a minute after his nephew. He leaned against the doorframe for a moment trying desperately to regain his breath. When he realized that Danny was nowhere in sight, he turned around and headed back to the cafeteria to at least attempt to settle the uproar that was sure to follow such a scene.

And have a word with Ms. Manson.

Within the cafeteria, Tucker had taken a few running steps after his friend when he bolted, but had quickly deduced that he had absolutely no chance of catching him. Instead he turned to the still seething Goth sitting with her arms crossed at their table. It didn't fool him; he could see how upset she was. Under other circumstances, he might have tried to comfort her by reminding her, yet again, that Danny liked her, but at the moment he was too angry at her. _She _might have missed it, but her last words had really hurt Danny.

"That was really low."

"It's true!" She glared at him, as though he was supposed to take her side on this.

"Doesn't make it right," he pointed out fiercely. "You _know _how he is about his family. You shouldn't have-"

"Ms. Manson, Mr. Foley, a word," Mr. Lancer interrupted sternly. He didn't understand why Mr. Foley had brought up his nephew's feelings about his family, and for a moment he regretted interrupting him, but they really didn't need another argument disrupting the school day.

The teens silently followed their teacher to his office where he gestured for them to sit down while he closed the door behind them. He sat behind his desk and crossed his arms and just stared them down for a moment, just long enough for them start fidgeting. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair.

"What I am about to tell you does not leave this room, am I clear?" he told them. The friends shared a glance, some of the heat of their anger cooled with confusion. "Am I _clear?_"

"Yes, sir," they answered. Lancer nodded in acceptance of their promise.

"The only reason that Danny did not tell you about Ms. Sanchez's visit to FentonWorks is because he made a promise to _me_," Lancer told them. His glare faded into a guilty frown. In all honesty he was more angry with himself then with Ms. Manson. "You see, Ms. Sanchez's mother and I…Well, we're getting married, and Paulina isn't exactly thrilled with the idea. I had hoped that by keeping this information in the family, she might come to accept it, to accept me."

Sam cringed with guilt. Of all the things she expected Mr. Lancer to talk to them about, _this_ had never even crossed her mind. Of _course _Danny would make a promise like that and keep it. She'd just been so angry at him for blowing her off for Paulina she hadn't even considered the possibility that there was another explanation.

Tucker frowned a little with his own share of guilt. While he hadn't made as big a deal out of it as Sam had, he had felt a little betrayed and angry that Danny hadn't said anything about Paulina. Now that he knew why, he understood that Danny was just trying to do the right thing. It had stung, but it wasn't Danny's fault.

Lancer let the two process the information for a moment before he decided that enough time had passed. They were already going to be late for their next class.

"Ms. Manson, I am going to let you off with a warning since I am at least partially to blame for that scene in the cafeteria, but there is one more thing we need to discuss," he informed his student. Once he had the attention of both her and Mr. Foley, he continued.

"Now, Mr. Gray will have seen – Ms. Manson, is there something more I should know about?"

Sam looked up, startled. Danny _had _warned them that Mr. Lancer was more observant than they had always given him credit for, but she hadn't realized he was quite _this_ observant; she'd barely flinched at the name.

"Danny's going to tell Valerie that he's a prince," Tucker answered for her before turning to face her with a frown. "Sam…I know you don't trust her, but she _does_ have a right to know."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," she snapped back. She was trying to be angry, but Tucker knew her too well. Valerie had been a touchy subject since Danny had first taken an interest in her. Still, Danny wasn't telling Valerie about his heritage because he wanted to be with her, he was telling her because she was his friend and it was the right thing to do, and Sam needed to realize that.

Lancer watched the interaction between the friends silently as he thought about his nephew's decision; it certainly said a lot about his character. The teacher sighed, another piece of the puzzle.

"Ms. Manson, Mr. Foley," he said to get their attention, "do either of you know where Danny may have run off to? As I said, Mr. Gray will have seen him leave but I'd rather be sure of where he's gone, just in case."

The teens shrugged helplessly. There really was no telling where Danny had gone in his anger, though they pitied whatever ghost was unlucky enough to cross his path in the meantime. Still, Danny was more than capable of taking care of himself…usually.

…Amity Park Mall…

Danny sat in the food court, sliding his drink absently between his hands. His anger had cooled off almost as soon as he got into the air: there was just no holding onto it while he flew. It's how it had been from the very beginning. Of all of his powers, he'd been quickest to master flight and possibly felt more comfortable in the air than on solid ground.

He sighed. He knew he had to go back – lunch had been over for a good fifteen minutes and he didn't want them forming a search party. Still, what Sam had said hurt him. What was worse was that he couldn't blame her for it – the three reasons he ditched his friends were ghosts, Vlad, and Danielle – and while it wasn't Dani's fault, trouble did tend to follow her. _That_ fact scared him more than he could say. What if she was in danger? He would never know and tough as Dani was, she was still very young and shouldn't _have_ to fend for herself.

He got up and threw his full drink in the trash as he left. He knew Sam was just looking out for him and learned one of his secrets in the process. She had a right to be angry, especially since he'd refused to explain, but his secrecy was the _only _thing she should have gotten angry about. He wasn't telling Valerie that he was Danny Phantom after all, and even if he hadn't given up the idea of dating her he wouldn't tell her about his title just for a date.

He shook his head. He really needed to clear his head because this was getting ridiculous.

"One of these days I'll get my sanity back."

He hoped.

….

A/N: Eh, the last part needs work, but overall I'm actually pretty happy with this chapter. Anyway, Dash and Paulina's reactions will be in the next chapter along with hopefully a less mopey Danny. Poor Danny, I'm really messing with his head. What did you think of the argument? Did the reveal of Lancer's engagement work? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	23. Mysteries

A/N: Surprise! An update you didn't wait half a year for!

Disclaimed.

…Casper High School….

Lancer sighed as he once again tried to get his students to concentrate on the lesson. The class had started – or rather was _supposed _to have started – some ten minutes ago, but the students were still loudly speculating on the scene that had occurred in the cafeteria. Some had even taken to pestering Ms. Manson and Mr. Foley for information but were finding that the two friends were as loyal as ever to Danny.

This was getting ridiculous.

"People! PEOPLE! You can hold your speculation until _after_ class! Until then, quiet down!" he shouted fruitlessly. "Didn't realize Danny was so popular."

Dead silence.

The disgruntled teacher raised an eyebrow. _Really? _That _caught their attention?_ He'd barely muttered the line!

The silence continued for a moment before being broken by a disdainful snort.

"_Please!_ _That _loser is so not popular!" Paulina scoffed.

Lancer merely smirked. "Then why is it that nearly _every one of you_ is so fascinated by his life?"

It was of course at this moment that the door creaked open to an embarrassed secret-prince trying to sneak in late.

Danny froze when he saw that every eye was on him. Figuring that it was because of the fight in the cafeteria, he smiled sheepishly.

"Uh, heh, sorry that I'm late, Mr. Lancer. And, um, that I ran out. Yeah…" he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He ducked his head down and rushed to his seat where one of his friends had deposited his backpack.

"That'll be detention for two weeks Mr. Fenton, and I will be speaking to you after class."

"Yes, sir."

With his class finally silenced, Mr. Lancer began the lesson fifteen minutes late.

…

Throughout the lesson, Dash couldn't stop thinking about the loser trio's argument. What could it have been about? It had to be something big, otherwise Fenturd wouldn't have run off. If there was anything Dash had learned about the loser, it was that he didn't freak out easily. It had to have something to do with Valerie's dad, but why would the Goth Freak go psycho on him? The star quarterback scowled as his confusion grew.

Still, no matter what Lancer said, Fenton was _not _popular.

….

Paulina had taken up her now usual position of crossing her arms and scowling angrily at her teacher now with the added glare in the direction of Danny Fenton when she felt a poke to her shoulder. Not even turning to look, she discretely reached back to accept the note Star was passing her.

_Paulina – _

_What do u think the lovebirds were fighting about?_

_Star _

Paulina glared at the note before crumpling it up and resuming her previous position. She was not going to talk about _them_!

Star looked at her friend with surprise. Usually Paulina was more than ready for the latest bit of gossip, even if it was about losers.

….After Class

Danny didn't bother getting out of his seat as the rest of the class rushed to get away. He knew what was coming, and he knew it was his own fault.

"Ms. Sanchez, please stay for a moment, I need to speak with you."

Danny looked up surprised. Paulina glared from her position near the door looking like she was seriously contemplating ignoring the teacher before grudgingly staying behind.

"Paulina, I'm sorry. I'm afraid that due to the nature of the argument in the cafeteria I have had to tell Ms. Manson and Mr. Foley about my engagement to your mother," Will apologized.

"WHAT!" both teens shouted angrily, though for different reasons.

The teacher cringed. It truly hadn't occurred to him that his nephew would be upset, but now that he thought about it it made sense. Danny was mad because Sam and Tucker should have heard about this from _him_, not his uncle.

"You _told_ those losers! I _HATE_ _you!"_ Paulina screamed. It was like she'd punched Lancer in the gut. Danny instantly swallowed his own anger at him when he saw that.

"Paulina!"

The angry Latina tried to run but Danny pulled her back and forced her to face him.

"LET ME GO!"

"_NO! _Not until you listen!" Danny shouted, refusing to back down and be the wimpy loser she usually saw. Paulina's eyes widened as she stared at the much-too-steady gaze of her cousin-to-be. Danny Fenton wasn't supposed to be like this. Danny Fenton was weak and cowardly and quiet.

"Now I _get_ why you're mad. I do. My friends should have heard about this from _me_ not him, but look at him right now, Paulina. _Look _at him and see what your words have done. He _cares_ about you, about both of us. He loves your mom and your mom loves him. Maybe you – no – _we_ need to listen to why he told them."

Paulina felt almost hypnotized by the certainty in Danny's words as she turned to follow his instructions and really saw what he was talking about. She hadn't seen Lancer so devastated since the day before he left for the funeral. She tried to push away the gnawing guilt that was creeping in on her. She tried to remind herself that this was the man who was ruining her life. That she despised him.

She couldn't.

Will looked on, astonished. In that moment, he could really _see_ the young man his nephew was becoming without the masks and lies that seemed to plague his life. He returned his soon-to-be stepdaughter's look. He'd never seen such a raw, unguarded look on her face before.

"I am sorry," he repeated, hoping that this time she would listen. "Ms. Manson saw you at FentonWorks last night, Paulina. It was a part of the argument," he explained. He then turned his gaze to his nephew. "It's my fault. I'm sorry, I thought telling them would help."

Danny let out a breath. He really couldn't hold a grudge against him for this.

"It's fine. And the argument wasn't your fault, it wasn't anybody's," Danny forgave him, rubbing the back of his neck out of habit. "Things just kinda…escalated from something else."

Will smiled back in relief before turning nervously to face Paulina who was looking anywhere but at him. For once, though, she wasn't glaring at him and seemed to have actually listened to Danny's words.

"That's…well, that's all that I needed to speak to you about, Ms. Sanchez."

The girl just nodded and rushed away, hoping her friends hadn't waited for her.

Silence reigned between the two men for a moment as they both tried to regain their composure. Will took the time to observe his nephew, hoping to glean some clue as to what he was hiding. His speech to Paulina had been well thought-out and heart-felt. There had also been a spark of wisdom there that most would not expect from the wiry teen.

"What _was_ the argument about?" Will finally asked, his curiosity finally getting the better of him.

Danny looked up sharply, worried that Lancer had overheard more than he thought. Satisfied that he didn't suspect anything, Danny settled for a portion of the truth.

"I'm telling Valerie about Bairdan. Sam doesn't trust her," he replied.

Will nodded. It only confirmed what the boy's friends had said. Still, that didn't explain _why _Ms. Manson didn't trust Ms. Gray and that worried him.

"She thinks Ms. Gray would tell someone?"

Danny shook his head. "No. Sam has her own problems with Valerie. I get why she's worried, but it has nothing to do with me being a prince."

"Care to elaborate?" Will prodded, but he didn't hold out much hope.

Danny just smiled back, ever the mystery.

"So, I take it you wanted to talk about me leaving school?"

Will sighed and chuckled in exasperation, recognizing the subject change for what it was.

"Yes, I do," he confirmed. "Danny it's not just today that it's been an issue. You can't just leave school whenever you want. This is especially true now. The deal your mother and aunt Clara made with Parliament was that you would be protected while you completed your education. I cannot protect you if I do not know where you are. If word reached Bairdan, I could be replaced as the head of your secret service detail. And if I am, it will be by someone far more invasive."

Danny bowed his head in a gesture of shame. Today had been stupid. He shouldn't have left just because he was upset. Still, what was he supposed to say: Sorry, Uncle Will, I can't stay in class because I'm dealing with evil ghosts bent on causing mischief? Like that would go over well.

"Danny, I need you tell me where it is that you disappear to every day."

Danny looked up at his uncle frowning and shook his head: No.

"Danny, ever since you learned that Alicia abdicated, you've been dead set on convincing your sister to do the same. I don't think you realize all that that entails. You need to get used to having protection everywhere you go and that is the very least of the changes you would have to face. So, tell me, Danny…where do you go?"

"No."

"What do you mean _no?_ _No_ is not an option here!" Will told him, angry that he refused to say. He needed to know.

"I mean, I'm not ready," Danny told him, his voice cracking on the last word. "And you _don't_ need to know."

"Danny, I don't know if you've realized this, but I am not just your teacher and uncle right now. I am the man in charge of keeping you _safe._"

"That's all well and good, Uncle Will, but this is _Amity Park! No one_ here knows or even _suspects_ that I'm a prince. And no one in Bairdan who knows where we live is going to tell. I'm as safe as I've ever been!" he shouted, frustrated. "You don't _need_ to know."

Will frowned worriedly. How was he ever going to keep Danny safe if the boy wouldn't say where he went.

Maybe Damon would have some insight to offer after today.

….

A/N: What did you think of the reactions? Did the interactions between Danny, Paulina, and Lancer work? Did you like the argument between Danny and Lancer? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	24. Resolutions and Revelations

A/N: Happy Easter!

Disclaimed.

….FentonWorks…

Jack bit his lip anxiously. He could do it. Gary wouldn't have given it to him if he didn't want Jack to read it. He wouldn't have told him the answers were right there if he thought Jack shouldn't know.

He glanced at the door, just to make sure that no one was about to come in. This should be so easy…

Jack huffed out a breath and put the journal down. Again. Why couldn't he just do this? He knew why. He'd decided three weeks ago when he'd first found this that he would rather learn the truth from Danny than from his deceased brother-in-law.

Still, after what Will and Damon had told him about his son's disappearances from school in the past week it was tempting.

_What would Vladd – No. What would _Maddie_ do?_

_Silly question, she'd open it._

Jack sighed again. He didn't want to do that. His own father had jealously read over Jack's notes and journals, hoping to find either the next great ghost-hunting invention for him to take credit for or evidence that Jack was conspiring with ghosts. It wasn't exactly the same; Gary could be wrong, after all. Even so, Jack didn't want to do that to _his_ son. It wasn't right.

That still left Jack with a problem: Danny's disappearances seemed to defy all logic. How could Will have seen Danny leave through the front door while Damon only saw an opening door and no boy?

There was also the fact that he'd been worried for nearly two years already.

He picked up the journal, and without even looking at it, dropped it into his jacket pocket before leaving his room.

"DANNY!" he called as he walked downstairs.

"He went to the park with Valerie, I think," Jazz called absentmindedly from her seat in the living room. He glanced over to see that she was curled up with a book of Bairdanian law and felt a pang of sadness. Just a few weeks ago that book would have been about psychology.

"Oh. Know when he'll be back, Jazzy-pants?" he asked, deliberately not calling her Jazzerincess.

…Amity Park Park…

Valerie saw Danny before he saw her. He was pacing up and down in the clearing he'd told her to meet him in and dragging his hand through his hair haltingly. She'd never seen him so nervous. He was almost always composed unless the situation was really bad. What was so terrifying about telling her something?

"Danny?" she called out, trying not to startle him. He spun around to face her.

"Valerie! Uh,um, y-y-you're here!"

Valerie smirked. Poor guy looked like a deer in the headlights.

"Well, you _said _to meet you here," she smiled, coming to meet him in the middle of the clearing. "What did you want to talk about?"

Danny opened his mouth, closed it, and turned away, scratching his head. Valerie watched curiously as he repeated these actions twice more.

"C'mon, it can't be that bad?" she prompted getting impatient.

"I-no, no it's not bad. It's just kinda big, y'know? I've never _actually_ had to tell anyone before and it's weird and crazy and huge and-and – but you're my friend! But if Jazz gets it through her thick skull that she doesn't have to go through with this then I'm going to have to go through with it and-and then I'll have to tell you about other things that are really really complicated and-and… And I'm rambling aren't I?" Danny finally looked at her sheepishly as he finally stopped to breathe.

"Just a little," Valerie smirked but her expression fell as she started to process all that he'd just said. "Other things?"

Danny instantly stiffened.

"I-It doesn't matter, at least, not right now. Look, I'm gonna sound kinda crazy or like I'm just making stuff up, but I need you to believe me, okay?"

Valerie raised an eyebrow, more interested in those _other things_ that were so complicated. Still, whatever this was sounded important.

She nodded. "Alright, but I still want to know what those 'other things' are."

Danny cringed. _How did I know she was going to say that?_

"Someday," he said evasively. "I also – I need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone."

Valerie almost took a step back at the intensity of the look he gave her. "Okay?"

"That project- While I was working on the personal heritage project for history, I-I found out something about-about my mom. You see, she wasn't, well she wasn't born here. She was born in this little Northern European country called Bairdan and she was – well – she…" Danny paused, taking a moment to breathe and get his thoughts straightened out. "She was born a princess."

Valerie's eyes widened in shock and a little bit of denial. It was just too strange, even by her standards.

"Danny, this isn't – "

"I said it would be hard to believe."

Valerie's protests died on her lips as it sunk in. The two teens stood there in awkward silence for a moment.

"I take it Sam and Tucker already know?" It was hardly a question. After all, when didn't they know?

"Yeah," Danny confirmed. "They were there when I found out. Heck, Tucker's the one that found the article. Which, is another thing; my uncle? The one that died? Val, he was the king. And he…he didn't have any kids. My parents leave as soon as Jazz graduates high school."

"And you're going with them," Valerie deduced. It made sense that they'd want to stay together.

"Actually, I'm staying here until I graduate from high school, but…I – if Jazz abdicates. If Jazz abdicates, then I will be next in line. If – _when_ that happens," he reminded himself, "I won't be coming back, except maybe for the odd visit."

Valerie nodded her comprehension. It was so surreal, but she got it.

"There's one more thing – well more than one but the other stuff can wait. You're dad joined the secret service."

Whatever reaction to that statement Danny was expecting, laughter certainly wasn't it. Valerie covered her mouth in an attempt to stifle her laughter, but it did little good as she bent over with the force of her mirth. The _irony!_

"Uh, Valerie?" Danny asked, hopelessly confused. _I didn't break her, did I?_ He seriously considered it as a possibility.

The girl just raised a hand to tell him she needed a minute as she gasped for breath. Of all the things he told her, the fact that she had told exactly the right person about Vlad's plots was just too much.

It took a minute for her to regain her composure, but when she did, she almost collapsed into another fit of giggles at the look on Danny's face.

"Mind telling me what's so funny?" Danny asked, baffled.

"Nothing, I'm just beginning to really like irony." She smiled back at him, her eyes still laughing at the situation.

"O-kay?"

She barely managed to hold back a snort of laughter at his expression.

…

A/N: Okay, so that was going to be longer, but I liked the idea of leaving it on a high note for once. Anyway, what do you think of the reveal to Valerie? Did her reaction make sense? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	25. The Journal

A/N: Yeah, I know. I'm late. Again.

Disclaimed.

…...Recap

"_She was born a princess."_

_Valerie's eyes widened in shock and a little bit of denial. It was just too strange, even by her standards._

…

"_There's one more thing – well more than one but the other stuff can wait. Your dad joined the secret service."_

_Whatever reaction to that statement Danny was expecting, laughter certainly wasn't it. Valerie covered her mouth in an attempt to stifle her laughter, but it did little good as she bent over with the force of her mirth. The irony!_

"_Uh, Valerie?" Danny asked, hopelessly confused. I didn't break her, did I? He seriously considered it as a possibility._

_The girl just raised a hand to tell him she needed a minute as she gasped for breath. Of all the things he told her, the fact that she had told exactly the right person about Vlad's plots was just too much. _

_It took a minute for her to regain her composure, but when she did, she almost collapsed into another fit of giggles at the look on Danny's face. _

"_Mind telling me what's so funny?" Danny asked, baffled._

"_Nothing, I'm just beginning to really like irony." She smiled back at him, her eyes still laughing at the situation._

"_O-kay?"_

_She barely managed to hold back a snort of laughter at his expression. _

… _End Recap_

"He's in the park."

Jack looked up from his pacing to look up at his daughter in surprise. The redhead just rolled her eyes.

"Your pacing is very distracting while I'm trying to read. If you need to talk to Danny that badly, he's at the south side of the park," Jazz explained. "He should be done with his talk with Valerie by now anyway."

…

Dash scowled. He'd been trying to find Fenturd for an hour with no luck. It was bad enough that he had to follow him to figure out what was going on in the first place. Now, he couldn't find him. He'd even gotten up extra early on a Saturday to stake out FentonWorks. The star-quarterback had managed to see when the loser left his home and started to follow him, but either Fentoe-nail was onto him or he was really paranoid because he'd managed to lose Dash within minutes of leaving his house. Dash slouched against the wall of the alley he was waiting in bored. After losing track of his favorite punching bag, he'd decided that his best bet was to return to FentonWorks.

It had been an hour. Dash groaned, tired of waiting. This was stupid anyway. Who cared what secret some loser had. He was just about to go home and play his new video game when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Instantly alert, he looked back at the door to FentonWorks. It was just Mr. Fenton leaving the house.

Dash did a double-take.

It was Jack Fenton leaving the house in a gray business suit. It was _Jack Fenton_ leaving the house in something that_ wasn't an orange hazmat suit! _Dash was so shocked that he almost didn't see which direction the loser's dad was going. Quickly shaking out of his stupor, Dash started to follow him. This was so weird!

Jack turned out to be much easier to track than his son, much to Dash's relief. It took only a few minutes before the older man turned into the park. It probably had nothing to do with Danny, but Dash was going crazy with curiosity. Even if he didn't find out what Danny and Mr. Gray had been talking about that day, maybe he could at least see why Mr. Fenton was wearing such odd – or rather _normal_ – clothing for a change.

Once they reached the south side of the park, Mr. Fenton began to slow down and look more closely at his surroundings. At first, Dash was afraid that he had been caught but then he breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that this was where Mr. Fenton was going. The older man was probably looking for something specific – probably ghost-related.

Dash bit his lip though. If it was ghost-related like he thought, then why wasn't the ghost-hunter in his usual jumpsuit? The blonde shook his head, scowling. Why was he even _trying _to make sense of a Fenton? Of _two_ Fentons? Only people from out of town did _that! Especially, _the Fenton _men._

Still, figuring out what they were doing wasn't the same as trying to make sense of it, and Dash was sick of being interested in the secrets of a loser.

Finally, Mr. Fenton seemed to spot what he was looking for, because he stumbled through some bushes into a clearing. Dash waited a minute before moving closer so that he could spy on him and grinned smugly to himself for being smart enough to follow Mr. Fenton instead of waiting around FentonWorks. He was proud of himself because Mr. Fenton had led him to Danny. Dash hid behind a bulky tree and settled in to eavesdrop.

…

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Danny asked, a bit startled. Luckily, he'd just been sitting around thinking about everything that had happened over the past month, but he was still surprised to see his Dad.

"Looking for you, son. I wanted to talk to you about somethin'."

"Uh, sure. What's up?" Danny said, giving his father his full attention. Surely whatever subject he brought up would be more pleasant than the turn his thoughts had taken. His talk with Valerie had made him wonder once again about Danielle and if she was alright. After all, the last time he'd seen her he and Valerie had just rescued her from Vlad. The thoughts had spiraled from there.

"Well," Jack began, grunting as he sat down on the ground next to his son. This monkey suit was really uncomfortable! "your mom and I are gonna be gone for a few days…"

"Yeah," Danny prompted. It really wasn't like his dad to hesitate. But then, it really wasn't like his dad to willingly don normal clothing either. This whole situation was a mess. Jazz had hardly said a word about psychology since they'd learned the truth, and their mom had been more agitated than either teen had ever seen her.

Jack took a quick breath to steady his resolve. He could back out of it easily enough. He could probably bring up some trivial detail about behaving for Will while they were away (or at the very least going _easy_ on the poor guy) but he knew that he couldn't. This was something he had to do.

"Danny, while we were in Bairdan…while we were in Bairdan, I found out your Uncle Gary had left his journal for me – to help out." Danny's eyebrows rose in surprise and he smiled.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Thing is, he also left me a letter and… Danny, it said that he knew." Jack stopped here, not sure how to continue.

Danny's smile faded in confusion. "Knew what?"

What was he getting at? What did any of this have to do with him?

"Knew whatever it was you were gettin' up to here. Whatever it is that gets you out of class and makes you miss curfew. He said…" At this Jack pulled the journal out of his jacket pocket. "Danny, the note said he wrote it in here."

Throughout his dad's explanation, Danny's eyes widened in panic and he tried desperately to stop himself from hyperventilating. He knew? Uncle Gary knew? Did his dad? Did his mom know? It took a moment before common sense managed to work its way through the whirlwind of emotions that were assaulting him but eventually it did. Garrett was halfway around the world. He was probably wrong. Still, despite the fright his dad's words had given him, Danny couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the thought. A fresh wave of guilt and loss washed over the teen as the realization settled in that his uncle died not knowing the truth.

"Hav-" Danny cleared his throat when it cracked on the word. "Have you read it?"

Jack looked at his son appraisingly. The apprehension on Danny's face was unsettling, but the small spark of hope that was almost hidden beneath it was a comfort. Whatever this secret was it was big, at least to Danny, but it wasn't necessarily bad. Not if Danny almost seemed to want the truth known.

"No."

Danny was shocked. He knew his parents were worried about him. They'd made that abundantly clear every time he missed curfew or they got a call from the school about some problem or another. So, why hadn't his dad read the journal? Why hadn't he taken the chance when it was given to him?

"Danny-boy, I wanna know. _Really _want to know what's goin' on with ya," Jack almost pleaded, "but I want _you_ to be the one who tells me. I-I want you to trust me, son."

With this said, Jack handed Danny the journal. "It's your choice to make."

Danny tentatively reached out and took the offered book, more touched than he could say.

"Thanks, Dad."

Jack started to get up, the temptation to scour the journal for answers now safely out of his reach.

"Dad."

Jack looked back down at his son.

"It's not about trust," Danny said, silently begging his dad to understand. It was more that he just wasn't ready to tell anyone.

Jack beamed, thrilled to hear that. Danny looked down at the journal once more before shoving it into his pocket and walking home with his dad. Neither one was aware that they had on _very _confused and annoyed spectator.

Dash scowled. Following them was supposed to _answer_ his questions, not make more!

…

A/N: What did you think of Dash's perspective of all this? Did you like Jack's solution to his problem with the journal? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	26. Frustrations

A/N: Eh, I think we're all getting tired of my excuses.

Disclaimed.

…Bairdan…

Jack sighed quietly as he tried desperately not to fall asleep. He knew this was important, but did it have to be so boring? He and Maddie had been in Bairdan for barely two days but already it felt like they'd been there for so much longer.

Maddie sent her husband a sympathetic look. Neither of them was particularly thrilled to be attending the state dinner. It was a relatively small function with the baron and a few of the more influential members of parliament, but that didn't stop it from dragging. They were used to action, not talk, and many of the men and women present had a tendency to drone on. It didn't help that Jack was sitting next to the rather long-winded George Blake.

Jack sent her a small smile that was closer to a grimace before returning his attention to the aging politician. Maddie felt a swell of pride for her husband and barely refrained from grinning. As it was she had to ask Anna to repeat herself.

The whole point of this particular trip was for Jack to meet the Lords and Ladies of parliament and for Maddie to get reacquainted with those she had known before she left to start her life with Jack. In some regards, it was nice to get reacquainted with old friends, but it was also tedious to have to make small talk with old rivals and critics. Especially when those old critics were prying busybodies like Anna.

"I was just curious, you know," Anna continued. "After all, you've managed to elude the press for so long! Your home must be very secluded…"

Maddie kept herself from rolling her eyes with great difficulty. "I don't know whether it's seclusion or simple misdirection. Whatever it is, I must admit that I enjoyed the privacy."

A butler stepped forward gracefully to fill the queen-to-be's glass of water unnoticed by the ladies.

"Misdirection?" Anna inquired, latching onto the word like a vulture.

Maddie skillfully hid her wince with a sip from the refilled glass, secretly wishing it was something stronger. She was really out of practice with politics, since it was fairly straight-forward at the local level of Amity Park. She'd forgotten how sharp Anna could be when she wanted to be.

"I only meant that the press has certain expectations about what royalty is like," Maddie responded, knowing that not to do so would be more disastrous. "Those expectations are usually based on some extreme caricature rather than reality."

Anna's face soured as she didn't even try to hide her frustration at not getting anything concrete to gossip about. The butler, Roger, scowled, sharing her frustration. He needed to find out where the princess and her family lived when they weren't in the country and soon.

…Amity Park….

Danny rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. It had been nearly four days since his dad had given him the journal and he still hadn't decided what to do with it.

He hadn't even opened it.

It was stupid. He could save himself a lot of trouble by just reading the darn thing and finding out if his uncle had really figured out the truth, but that seemed to be the problem. On the one hand, it would be a relief to know that his uncle had known the truth before he passed on. On the other hand, though, it would be crushing to find out for certain that the man had been wrong.

Like he needed anything _else_ to worry about!

Once again he jumped to his feet to pace his room.

He needed to do something. After all, Uncle Garrett had left the journal for Jack as an aid in maneuvering the intricacies of politics. Danny couldn't deny his father that help, but he wasn't ready yet for his parents to know about his powers. On the same note though, he was beginning to wonder if he would ever be ready.

Danny slumped against his wall in defeat and rubbed at a knot in his neck.

On top of all this he had to learn politics himself (which he was well aware that reading the journal could help him with), find Dani, protect the town, and keep his grades up. It really was no wonder he couldn't sleep.

There was a soft knock on his bedroom door, followed shortly by Will opening the door a crack.

"What are you still doing up?" Will asked, a concerned frown on his face. "It's nearly two o'clock in the morning!"

Danny winced. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

Will sighed. "No, I was up to get a glass of water when I heard you pacing. What is going on? You look stressed."

Danny raised an eyebrow, hoping that his uncle would assume the general situation. Unfortunately, Will wasn't fooled and just crossed his arms in response.

The staring contest lasted a good two minutes before Will shook his head.

"Just get to sleep; I won't have you sleeping in my class. We'll talk about this tomorrow."

Danny grimaced, but nodded anyway. He gave the journal one last frustrated glance before flopping back onto his bed, hoping that sleep would claim him.

It was a small hope.

…

The next day yielded a very tired and grumpy teen doing a fine impression of the _undead _rather than the half dead that he was as he trudged to school with his friends.

"Busy night?" Tucker asked, nudging his friend. Danny quirked an eyebrow at his friend in a strange combination of incomprehension and annoyance before shrugging.

"Not really. Box Ghost showed up around two, but one glare and he was gone. I'm assuming he warned the others not to mess with me since no one else showed up."

Sam and Tucker shared a glance. Box Ghost wasn't powerful by any means, but he wasn't easily intimidated either. Something was up.

"Okay, what's up? You obviously didn't get any sleep last night; and if it wasn't the ghosts it was something else. So, spill," Sam demanded in a no-nonsense tone with her hands on her hips.

Danny grimaced. "Uncle Garrett left his journal for my dad."

Both of his friends looked at him expectantly for further information.

"With a note claiming he'd figured me out. Claiming that he knew what was going on with me and that he'd written it in his journal."

Tucker's eyes widened with shock. "Dude!"

Sam, however, rolled her eyes. "Danny, the chances that your uncle was able to put the pieces together when he wasn't even in the country are slim to none."

Danny shook his head. "That's just it though. Maybe the only reason no one around here has figured anything out is _because_ they're too close. I mean, think about it; my parents haven't made any connections between me and Danny Phantom because they love me too much and hate him. Danny Phantom also means something to a lot of people here, whether they hate him or hero-worship him. Then there's the fact that not everyone knows _me_. There would be no basis for comparison. Living all the way in Bairdan, Uncle Garrett was getting mostly facts on top of not having seen me in person in years. Out of anyone…out of anyone, he would have the best perspective and distance to figure it out."

Danny frowned and looked down. "I just don't know if he did."

Sam's forehead creased in worry. "You've really thought this through."

Danny gave a self-deprecating grin. "Yeah, well, I couldn't stop thinking of it after my dad….That journal was supposed to be my dad's road map to international diplomacy. Sam. Sam, he didn't even open it before he gave it to _me._"

There was silence for a moment. Tucker and Sam both looked at their friend in near-disbelief. Danny swallowed a few times, trying to get the words out.

"He said," Danny paused again. Not even Tucker thought to rush him even as they paused outside the school. "He said if he was going to learn the truth, he wanted it to be because _I_ trusted him enough to tell him."

"_Man_, that's…I don't even know," Tucker said, shaking his head. His following question was hesitant, "Are you going to tell him?"

Danny chuckled humorlessly. "That's the question, isn't it? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe it's time, you know? I mean, he and my mom will be out of the country for the next few years and out of Vlad's reach….It would be nice if they knew."

Sam was about to caution him against telling them since they'd most certainly want to tell Mr. Lancer as Danny's guardian and bodyguard when she saw the look of longing that crossed his face at the thought of telling the truth. Her shoulders dropped as she let out the breath she'd taken to lecture him on the importance of secrecy. She couldn't do it. She knew how much he hated lying to his parents. What right did she have to tell him he shouldn't? Especially when they knew from the mess with the Reality Gauntlet that his parents would accept him.

"Maybe."

…

A/N: Yeah, I know, it's short again. This just felt like the right place to stop. What did you think of Jack and Maddie's boredom? Or Danny's conflict? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	27. The Bargain

A/N: UGH! Writer's Block sucks.

Disclaimed.

…

It was almost unfair how easy it was. He really should feel some level of remorse for using this against him. He should, but he didn't. The fact that the boy had brought this on himself certainly played a part in assuaging his conscience. That, and the ever-constant worry that he'd felt for approximately two years.

Still, if everyone else behaved themselves then he would be guaranteed at least one half-hour in which the boy could not escape his interrogation. There was only twenty minutes left until he could be sure of his victory. There was just one thing that could ruin his plans; the boy's friends. They had proved themselves loyal to the point of recklessness. Admirable, really, but also cause for concern.

Especially since his nephew seemed well-aware of what was coming when detention-time rolled around and was sending pleading glances at said loyal friends.

Will once again glanced at the clock, frowning: fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes had seemed pleasantly close to the end of the school day before. Now he was realizing that twenty minutes – now fourteen – was more than enough time for any one of his students to cause mischief. The now-thirteen minutes remaining seemed like an eternity. He had to think of something…unless. Of course. He'd set the class to read a chapter in their books while he graded papers. He'd get strange looks, but it was worth it.

"Alright, class. Since you've been so studious these last few minutes, I'm going to do something I don't normally do; the next ten minutes are yours to do with as you wish," he announced before he realized how dangerous his wording was and amended, "Within reason."

Excited chatter immediately arose from the teenagers at the unprecedented reward and soon the classroom was in mild disarray as students flocked from one end of the room to the other to gossip with friends. Even so, Danny wasn't the only one left gaping, though he was the only one whose expression switched to a scowl rather than a grin. Clearly, he wasn't impressed.

After all, Mr. Lancer had just minimized the number of offences that students could get detention for with just one move. He even gave permission to one group of students to use the chalkboard for a game of hang-man.

Tucker shrugged at his friend in sympathy. What could he say, for once the teacher had managed to outmaneuver them. It would take something fairly big to get detention now. Before the announcement, Tucker had been planning on getting caught texting or passing notes – something miner that his parents wouldn't get too angry over – but with the freedom Lancer had just given them that wouldn't do the trick. He wasn't even entirely sure that he or Sam getting detention would really help Danny avoid being cornered anyway. They knew too much.

Danny smiled tiredly back. It was up to him at this point to evade the questions. He could do it. He _had _done it for the better part of two years. It would just be very difficult.

Neither boy noticed the social anomaly taking place at that very moment, though they were the only ones. The noise disappeared as gradually their classmates took notice of something that had not been seen in the history of their schooling: Sam Manson was approaching Paulina Sanchez and she was smiling.

"You and I have to talk, Sanchez."

If Sam Manson approaching Paulina Sanchez was unusual, Paulina Sanchez agreeing to speak with Sam Manson without her satellite was downright bizarre.

Every ear in the room strained to hear what the two girls were saying but it was no use. All that happened was that Sam held something just out of sight of her nosy classmates for the popular girl to read. Paulina raised an eyebrow at the goth in surprise before shrugging and walking away with a smirk.

Will frowned warily. Sam and Paulina working together was a frightening concept.

Seven minutes left.

SMACK!

He nearly gaped at what he saw. Of all the things he expected to come of Sam Manson's unusual action, Paulina Sanchez slapping Danny Fenton was not one of them.

"What was that for?" the bewildered secret prince exclaimed, suddenly very much awake.

"Detention Ms. Sanchez!" The sentence was out of Will's mouth before he could stop it.

"Yes, Mr. Lancer," Paulina said without a trace of remorse.

Danny rubbed his cheek while shooting suspicious looks at the two girls responsible. The slap didn't really hurt him, but he was worried. What had Sam promised Paulina to get her to do it _and _act so flippantly afterward?

...City Hall…

Vlad's brow furrowed as he stared at his computer screen. This information couldn't be right, yet he'd come up with the same results every time.

Unlike the last time that Maddie and the oaf left town, they had left a phone number with him should there be an emergency and he needed to contact them. All they had told him about the line was that it was not a direct connection to them. They didn't even tell him who would be fielding the calls, just that he would only be able to speak to them if it truly was an emergency.

He'd of course been extremely suspicious and put the number through a not-so-legal search to find out whom it belonged to.

He'd just never expected the answer to be William Lancer.

"Why do they trust you with their whereabouts and not me? What makes an ordinary English teacher so important?"

There had to be some connection other than that between parent and teacher. It shouldn't be too hard to find out. He probably wouldn't even have to resort to illegal means to do it. A simple search engine should produce the needed results.

**Jack Fenton and William Lancer**, he typed in.

**No results found.**

This was no reason to get discouraged.

**Maddie Fenton and William Lancer, **he typed in this time.

**No results found.**

For his next search he typed in **Madeline Burnhide and William Lancer.**

When there were still no results, Vlad decided to try a different tactic. He would find out all that he could about William Lancer. Perhaps that would yield results.

…Casper High School….

The bell rang signaling the end of the day and it wasn't long before the halls were abuzz with gossip and speculation about the Bargain, as the deal between Sam and Paulina was being referred to now. The group of students most closely effected by the Bargain also talking about the bizarre turn of events.

"I expect you to make good on that promise _tonight_, Gothica," Paulina told Sam before heading to her locker to gather her things before detention.

Sam glared after her. "Don't worry, Sanchez, I'm good for my word."

Danny glanced worriedly between the girls. He didn't know what to think.

"Please tell me you didn't promise her a date with Danny Phantom," he asked his friend. Sam just rolled her eyes.

"It's nothing you need to worry about," she snapped, stalking away.

"Good luck with detention, man," Tucker said.

"Yeah, thanks. Make sure she's okay, alright?" Danny nodded towards Sam's retreating figure.

"I will," he agreed before following the goth.

…

"Sam! Hey! Sam, wait up!" Tucker panted as he caught up with his friend. Sam slowed down but did not completely stop.

"Are you okay? What did you promise her?"

"Does it matter?" Sam scowled. "I bought that jerk the time he needed to come up with a real excuse."

"Whoa, hold on! Where's that coming from?" Tucker asked, grabbing his friend by the shoulders.

"Sam?"

There was a long pause before she finally answered.

"Does he really think that I would do that to him?" she spat. With that Tucker finally understood.

"It's _Danny_ Sam, I don't think he _thought_ at all. If anything he just said the first thing that popped into his head that would entice Paulina," he reasoned. "What did you really offer her?"

Sam scowled and looked away. "A half hour to search my room for blackmail material."

….

A/N: Uh oh, Vlad's catching on! What do you think about the Bargain? Did you like Lancer's plot to corner Danny? Tell me in a review and as alwaysALOHA!


	28. Searching

A/N: Happy Halloween! Even with renovating my room this would have been up sooner had my charger not decided to be stupid. Anyway, enough with excuses, you want a story.

Disclaimed.

…Eidolon Hill…

"You'd better not have hidden anything while I was in that detention," Paulina threatened. She had only agreed to this because she was sick of the other girl getting under her skin so much more than she could rattle her. She had no idea where the goth's lair even was – no one except Danny and the techno-geek really did – so she didn't know what to expect.

Sam rolled her eyes, already regretting her actions. Danny could have dodged those questions. Why did she save him again. She barely kept back a snort of self-derision; she saved him because that's what she did – what she and _Tucker_ did. Even if he could be a selfish jerk sometimes.

"If I hid anything it was to protect Danny and Tucker. _I'm_ the only one allowed to blackmail them, _got it?_"

Paulina blinked. She really shouldn't have been surprised. After all, the trio was inseparable. They protected each other. _Everyone _knew that.

"Well, _duh!_ I meant anything condemning _you_, Loser."

Sam blinked and raised an eyebrow. She really hadn't expected that. While she did mock Paulina for her shallowness, she was aware that the popular girl could be clever when it suited her. When she'd made the Bargain, she'd assumed that Paulina had guessed there would be dirt on her boys too. Even then, she was more surprised that Paulina seemed unbothered by the idea that Sam had flat-out told her that she had hidden anything incriminating about Danny and Tucker.

"Ooh! I _love_ this shoe store!" Paulina squealed. She couldn't help it. This small shop had the best designer shoes in Amity Park. That was when a horrifying thought occurred to her.

"Your family doesn't own this place does it"

Sam _dearly _wanted to say yes and see the ensuing tantrum, but she refrained. Barely.

"No," Sam rolled her eyes. Paulina's shoulders sagged in relief, until she saw Sam's smirk and they tensed again. "I live across the street."

"But-but this is Eidolon Hill!"

Sam's response was a very bored "Yeah."

"But only _rich_ people live here!"

"Let's just get this over with," Sam groaned. This was going to be one of the worst half-hours of her life.

Luckily, her parents were out schmoozing at some work function for the next few hours. Paulina would be long gone before she had to deal with them.

"So, yeah. This is where I live. Come on, your half-hour starts as soon as we cross the threshold of my room."

The popular girl just nodded numbly. She couldn't believe it! The Goth had more money than her! _This can't be right. She must have blackmailed the home-own…. _Paulina's thought process stuttered to a halt as they arrived at Gothica's bedroom. There was no mistaking it, even though it was three times the size of hers. If the black walls, purple carpet, and wrought iron bed weren't clue enough, there were framed pictures on every surface with Sam and her guys.

Sam smirked at Paulina's gobsmacked expression. This would be easier than she thought if the other girl was just going to stand there in shock. Eventually, though, Paulina snapped her mouth shut and silently started searching with a small frown on her face.

Paulina looked in each drawer and under the bed. She opened the closets – _two_ of them – and found nothing except a surprising collection of pink designer clothes. She looked everywhere that she could think of but she couldn't bring herself to really get into her snooping. She didn't really understand what was with her. Why was she wasting such a great opportunity to take that stupid loser down a peg or two?

It wasn't until she raided the back of the pink closet that she found anything that had any potential. It was a photo album buried under a cute pink sweater and pink-polka-dotted skirt. Shrugging, she opened the album. There were a couple of pictures of Sam with an old woman who had to be her grandmother and one or two containing a cheerful blonde man and redheaded woman she guessed were Sam's parents, but the rest was filled with pictures of Danny and Tucker. Danny and Tucker at the zoo, Danny and Sam glaring at the camera (or more likely Tucker), a few of Sam and Tucker from odd angles or looking annoyed and covered in …_ something_ gross.

She wasn't surprised that Sam had so many pictures of them. She had no doubt that both boys had similar albums somewhere in their own rooms. She _was_ surprised to find herself teary-eyed. What was _wrong_ with her?

"Time's up! Where are you?" Sam shouted, coming into the closet. Paulina quickly wiped at her eyes. She couldn't let the other girl see her like this. Sam slowed down as she saw Paulina, not sure what was going on. Her thoughts jumped to Spectra. This wasn't Paulina crying in frustration because she hadn't found anything and gotten detention for nothing. She was just… crying. Genuinely upset. Cautiously, she reached behind a particularly garish floral dress and grabbed the ecto-blaster she kept stashed there.

"Paulina, I may not like you, but whatever Spectra said is still way off-base," Sam told her scanning the area with her eyes for any sign of the leech.

Paulina looked confused. "What are you talking about? What does that stupid counselor have to do with anything?"

Sam blinked and lowered the blaster. It was too late to hide it.

"Spectra's a ghost who feeds off of misery and since you're crying…."

Paulina's eyes widened and her eyebrows rose.

Realizing that Spectra was nowhere in sight, Sam closed her eyes and huffed out a breath. She was relieved that it wasn't Spectra, but that still left the question of why Paulina was crying. Annoyed that she had to do this, Sam kneeled next to the other girl. She wasn't heartless after all.

"What's wrong?" It wasn't her most sympathetic tone, but that was reserved for her guys and cute fluffy animals – sometimes plants.

"Nothing! I just got dust in my eye, Loser!" Paulina scowled. Sam just crossed her arms and scowled. It was her signature 'Now the truth' look. Sure it was dusty in the _pink_ closet, but this particular corner was kept clean, since it was where she hid her albums. Tucker took the Phantom album for safekeeping.

Paulina shrunk away from the look for a moment before doing something that left Sam mildly impressed, since even Danny in ghost form had yet to accomplish it: she glared back.

"I got _dust in my eye, _Manson."

Sam leaned back and smirked. "Then you won't mind the clean air _outside_ of my house, Sanchez."

Paulina stuck her nose in the air and strode out of the closet. She had just reached the door out of the bedroom when something soft hit her in the back of the head.

"Since you didn't find anything," Sam shouted. She glared back at the Goth until she saw the pink _Rosa Cardinal_ blouse on the floor. That brand was insanely expensive. So much so that even she couldn't afford it.

Paulina had never been so confused.

…Vlad's Mansion…

Vlad rubbed at his temples trying to stave off the migraine that was forming. Who knew one teacher could have so many secrets. Honestly! Related to royalty? Of all the things that he'd expected to dig up, _that _was not one of them. Still, the only connection he had to Maddie was Danny and Jazz. After all, Maddie was perfect but she wasn't a princess. She would have told the oaf when they got married, and if Vlad knew anything about Jack Fenton (other than the fact that he was an idiot) it was that he could not keep a secret.

It was one of the reasons that he hated him so much, because there had been a time when he'd considered Jack his best friend. When he'd first had his accident, he'd even considered forgiving him. He didn't consider it long and only in his weakest moments, but he did think of it. The fact that he couldn't trust his so-called best friend to keep his secret had been part of why he'd laughed at himself for even thinking of it.

Still, what made Maddie trust William Lancer more than him? Why was he so significant to the Fenton family?

Vlad groaned. He'd just have to wait until Maddie and Jack were back in town and trick the oaf into giving up the truth.

…

A/N: I'm not sure this turned out like I wanted it to, but I wanted to get this up before the end of the month. Also, as a heads up, I work retail so updates will probably stay slow as the holiday season approaches. I'll still try to get something up, but no guarantees. Anyway, Trick or Treat?


	29. Help Unwanted

A/N: Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it!

Disclaimed.

…FentonWorks…

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"DANIEL JAMES FENTON! OPEN THIS DOOR! We are NOT done talking!"

Danny ignored the shouting on the other side of the door. Instead, he concentrated on freezing the lock in place so that even if his uncle somehow knew how to pick locks he would be unable to get through his. He had to do this. The detention had been beyond awkward, but it had given him some time to think. He was tired of sitting around not knowing.

He needed to know what was in that journal, and he needed to know _before_ his parents returned in just three days.

His dad deserved the chance that his uncle Gary had given him.

…

"Uncle Will?" Jazz said. The man in question jumped, startled.

"Jazz! I didn't hear you come up. Was there something you needed?" Will asked attempting to regain his composure.

"Don't."

"What?" Will responded, baffled.

"Don't push him. Please," Jazz insisted. "I know it's frustrating not knowing, but Danny needs to work this out on his own."

Will huffed out a breath and ran a hand over his scalp. "Work out _what_, Jasmine? There's more going on here than grief and adjusting to new circumstances. You _know _that!"

Jazz appraised her uncle with a well-trained eye. She could clearly see that he was angry and at a loss. She could tell that he felt helpless being locked out both literally and figuratively. A small part of her wondered how a man who was so easily read could be on the secret service before her rational mind dismissed the thought. Her own brother was just as easily read while still being closed tighter than Fort Knox.

"Yes, I do."

Will's jaw clenched in anger. He didn't want to snap at his niece, but this was getting old. He was sick of these games that these teenagers and their friends played. How could he help them if they wouldn't even tell him what the problem was?

"I also know," Jazz's voice cut through his thoughts, "that Danny is in his room. Which tells me that it's nothing to worry about. Whatever he's thinking about right now he'll figure it out. He always does."

…Pomona's house…

Paulina cringed at the sight of her mother cross-armed and lips pursed when she walked in the door. Stupid Goth. She just had to complicate things. Why couldn't she have slapped someone else? Or better yet, why couldn't the Goth slap her own boyfriend? And most of all, why did it have to be her weekend with her mother. Papa wouldn't care that she'd slapped some loser, especially if she'd made up some stupid story about the boy having hurt her somehow first.

"What were you _thinking?_" Pomona hissed at her daughter.

"I-" Paulina said, fleetingly considering telling her mother that the Goth had blackmailed her. Instead, she bit her lip and kept quiet.

Pomona was more furious than she'd ever been with her daughter. She cursed her ex-husband a hundred times over for spoiling their daughter to the point that she couldn't recognize how far was too far.

"Why would you do something like this? Hmm?" Pomona asked, searching her daughter's face for answers. "Paulina!"

"They're inseparable!" The girl jumped. Paulina wiped at her face, furious at the wetness she found there.

Pomona's anger diffused in the face of her complete bewilderment. She wanted to ask why that would cause her to slap Danny Fenton. She knew that there had been some sort of bargain made between her daughter and Danny's gothic friend, but that didn't explain why Paulina would even consider the idea. She wanted to ask, but the startled look on her daughter's face told her everything. Paulina didn't understand it herself, yet.

"Just go to your room," Pomona sentenced quietly. Once Paulina was gone, though, she allowed a relieved smile to cross her face. It seemed that something was finally getting through to her spoiled little girl.

….Baxter house…

Dash scowled at the wilderness survival website he'd wound up on. _Bear Dan's Survival guide _was most definitely _not_ what Fentoad and his dad were talking about. Bairdan had been the best clue in that whole conversation and he couldn't even spell it. Of course, if he could just steal the journal he wouldn't have to, but Fenton hadn't brought it to school.

He probably left it at home. Dash was curious but even he wasn't dumb enough to try to break into FentonWorks. It was torture to know that there was an answer to one of the biggest mysteries in Casper High – maybe even in Amity Park at large – and he couldn't reach it!

He needed help.

…

A/N: Short, yes, but significant. What did you think? Tell me in a review and as alwaysALOHA!


	30. Learning Curve

A/N: Happy New Year!

Disclaimed.

…

_I am King Garret. I can't even begin to explain how strange that is to write. It's even weirder to hear! I was crowned today. I guess I should probably put a date down, but nah! That's what historians are for. _

Danny snorted and continued to read.

_I was so nervous this morning that I would get everything wrong. Surprisingly I only made two mistakes. Hurrah for me! Future reader, please note the heavy sarcasm in that last statement. Thankfully, my mistakes weren't particularly large or noticeable (although __both__ of my sisters probably caught them. Lucky me! Again, sarcasm.). Parliament will likely never forgive me for not knowing all of their names, but I can live with that._

Danny smirked at the way his uncle wrote. It seemed that they were even more alike than he thought.

_Still, I will learn their names. I already know most of them. At the very least, if I do not recognize them on sight, a simple prompt will let me recognize them. The ones I recognize most readily are those who speak out more during proceedings. They are either my friends or my most bitter rivals. The rest are quiet, and only speak when a vote is to be cast. How they can expect me to recognize them when they never draw attention to themselves will never cease to confuse me. I suppose I've met a few of them once or twice at state dinners and balls, but really, those events are often so chaotic that I can rarely tell whom I've spoken to and who has just arrived. Well, I'm tired, so I'm going to stop writing now. _

At this point, Danny flipped to the next page. He knew that he needed to skip ahead to find out if his uncle really knew the truth about him, but Gary had only mentioned one of his two mistakes and it was irritating not knowing. Unfortunately, a quick skim of the next few pages showed that his uncle never wrote it down.

"Dang it!" Danny huffed, annoyed. This had to be one of the bigger downsides to his curiosity. Unlike not knowing if his uncle really knew the truth about him or not, not knowing what that other mistake was, was like an itch he couldn't scratch. It wasn't important, but it was very distracting. He'd have to ask his mom or aunt what it was later.

Shaking his head to clear it of its current occupation, Danny quickly skipped ahead. Thankfully, after the first fifty pages or so his uncle had started to put dates at the tops of the pages, citing his inability to find particular entries without them as his reason to start "doing an historian's job".

It wasn't long before he found exactly the entry he needed to find.

….Casper High, the next day…

Mr. Lancer frowned as his nephew led his friends into class. It was nice that he was actually on time for once (how he managed to be tardy when the vice principal drove him to school remained a mystery), but the teacher couldn't stop dwelling on the morning car ride. Danny had maintained his silence from the night before no matter what Will did or said to convince him otherwise. It was so frustrating! A small selfish part found satisfaction when it became clear that the boy's friends were just as much in the dark, while a much larger portion of his mind was becoming alarmed by the same observation. What was so big that his nephew would not even confide in his ever-loyal friends?

In the end, Will forced himself to ignore the problem until school let out for the day. He certainly could not confront his nephew here. Instead, he chose to focus on the other two curiosities of the day: Paulina Sanchez and Dash Baxter.

On an average day, his step-daughter-to-be was self-assured and comfortable in her perceived superiority to her classmates. Today, though, the girl seemed off-put and insecure. Pomona had of course told him about what had happened last night, but that only left him more curious than ever about what Ms. Manson had offered her in the Bargain. Again, this was something that could not be addressed immediately, not least of all because Paulina would never confide in him. He made a note to himself to call Ms. Manson to his office. He couldn't formally punish her for her part in Ms. Sanchez's behavior, since he had no evidence that she _had_ had an active role in the incident, but that didn't mean he couldn't get answers.

With that thought aside, he was left with Dash Baxter's unusual behavior. It wasn't as obvious as the first two. Indeed, any of the many substitutes that Casper High went through would think that Dash Baxter was a well-behaved and attentive student. And therein lay the problem; Dash Baxter was seldom attentive and usually only gave the appearance of well-behaved. He knew full-well that the quarterback passed notes and hurled spitballs at his less popular classmates, but unless he caught the boy in the act, there was little he could do about it. Still, Dash had been doing a fine impression of a good student and that made Lancer wonder what he wanted.

It wasn't until class ended for the day that Mr. Lancer got the answer to that mystery in the form of one not-so-innocent and all too alarming question.

"Mr. Lancer? Uh, I gotta do this report thingy for history, and, uh, I need to ask you something," Dash asked far too politely.

"Certainly, Mr. Baxter, what can I help you with?" Maybe he was just being suspicious? It was certainly possible that his student was just finally putting some effort into his school-work.

"How do you spell Bairdan?"

Will inhaled sharply through his nose.

…

A/N: Originally, I was going to have Dash bully Mikey into helping him, but this just seemed more dramatic. What did you think? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!

_Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind…_


	31. Awkward Questions

A/N: Cutting it close again. _Sigh._

Disclaimed.

…..

"_Mr. Lancer? Uh, I gotta do this report thingy for history, and, uh, I need to ask you something," Dash asked far too politely._

"_Certainly, Mr. Baxter, what can I help you with?" Maybe he was just being suspicious? It was certainly possible that his student was just finally putting some effort into his school-work._

"_How do you spell Bairdan?"_

_Will inhaled sharply through his nose. _

…

"Mr. Baxter," Will started with a very dry mouth. He paused, at a loss for words. How was he supposed to keep his student from learning the truth without making him suspicious?

"Mr. Baxter, what kind of project is this?"

"Uh, the um, personal heritage project! Yeah, that one," Dash answered. He was rather proud of himself for that one. It wasn't even a lie!

"So, your family's from Bairdan?" Will inquired, stalling. Maybe Dash would get distracted from his original question. This project was becoming nothing but a headache!

"Uh, yeah?" Dash smiled a little too brightly. The teacher narrowed his eyes. That was a little suspicious, but could still be chalked up to the student not having expected to be questioned. Still…

"Which side?" he asked as casually as he could, as though he was only mildly curious rather than growing more nervous by the second.

"Uh, my dad's – NO, my mom's side. Yeah, my mom's grandma came fro-."

"Mr. Baxter!" Mr. Lancer interrupted. Now he was certain and more than a little frightened. It would not be good if Dash found out the truth. "Where did you hear about Bairdan?"

Dash gulped. This was not going how he'd expected at all. Why was Lancer freaking out like this?

"I don't know!" Dash lied. "I just heard about it and I was curious!"

"You wouldn't have made up a story if it was mere curiosity. Now, I want the truth," Lancer told him sternly.

"I just overheard Fenton talking about it!" Dash finally confessed.

Lancer seemed to deflate at this response as he closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his forehead as though to ward off a headache.

"What all did you hear?"

"Just-just that that's where they went and - ." Dash snapped his mouth shut. If he didn't say anything, maybe he could find a way to get that journal and find out what Fenton's been hiding.

"And what?" Lancer insisted. He was not going to back down about this! Dash shrunk back from the teacher's fierce glare.

"And that Fenton's uncle had left a journal to his dad. Mr. Fenton said that there was a letter that said he knew where Fenton disappears to."

Will leant back, stunned. Of all the things Dash could have said, that was probably the one thing he hadn't been expecting. Garrett knew? Still, something about Dash's story didn't make sense.

"Hold it, Mr. Baxter," he called out. The student froze in his position halfway through the door. Dash cringed. He'd been hoping to escape while the teacher wasn't looking.

"I have a few more things I need to ask you."

"B-But I've got practice!"

"It can wait," the teacher told him in a tone that clearly said that he had no choice in the matter.

Dash was beginning to panic. This was _insane!_

"How did Danny know about this journal?" When the boy just stared at him like he was crazy, Will relented. He wasn't trying to traumatize him. "Just answer this last question, and I will let you go."

Dash just looked at him for a minute longer like he had some serious doubts about that before he answered.

"Mr. Fenton gave it to him."

Lancer gestured for the boy to leave and sat back in his desk chair as the boy lived up to his name.

…FentonWorks, later…

Dinner that evening was quiet. The three teenagers at the table glared at each other as though trying to anticipate the enemy's next move and the adults watching vigilantly, ready to interfere at the first sign of conflict.

"So," Pomona spoke up, hoping to diffuse some of the tension. "How is your history project coming along, Danny?"

Both Danny and his uncle cringed at the question, though for different reasons. "Uh, fine. I mean it's done."

"Oh," Will asked, "maybe I can look it over for you?"

"No. No, I mean, Sam's already looked it over. It's fine. Thanks."

Silence reigned for another few minutes as everyone ate.

"So, like, where are your parents?" Paulina asked, unabashed even as her mother scolded her for her lack of manners.

The Fenton siblings and their uncle stiffened.

"They're out of the country on business," Jazz answered, her voice clipped.

"Where?" Paulina persisted.

"Paulina! That is enough!"

"Why is it such a big secret anyway?" Paulina continued, not to be deterred. She found support from a surprising source.

"Yeah, why is it such a big secret?" Danny pointed out. Her question had startled him, but he wasn't surprised. After all, his parents very rarely left town. He turned to his cousin-to-be.

"They're in Bairdan. There were some matters that they had to attend to that they couldn't do over the phone or video chat. They should be back in a couple of days."

Everyone looked at him incredulously. Just a minute ago he'd been as willing to talk as a rock and now he was acting as if this _wasn't_ the most awkward dinner they'd had yet?

"What? Practically no one has even heard of Bairdan it's so small," he said, looking pointedly at his uncle. If they acted like it was a huge secret then people might dig deeper.

He was actually glad that Paulina had asked what was going on. The brazen question had helped snap him out of his thoughts. He'd been thinking about it all day, ever since he read the journal entry.

_I've been thinking about this for a long time, _Uncle Gary had written, _and more and more I'm finding it harder to dispute the idea. It seems impossible. It should be. Maddie, Jack, and Will have all told me about the problems Danny has been having lately. I've also been looking up Amity Park's news since Maddie told me about her and Jack's success with the Fenton Portal. It all fits. The absences and tardies, the missed curfews and strange behavior. All of it corresponds. It's too much of a coincidence, but I can see how everyone else has missed it. After all, you can't be alive and dead at the same time. My nephew, Danny Fenton, is the ghost boy, Danny Phantom. I know he's had some trouble, but I also know that he's saved a lot of lives. I'm so proud. And I'm so worried. _

The entry itself had made him happy. His uncle _had_ known the truth. The problem came in that he needed to give his dad the journal back. He needed to figure out how to do that. At the same time, he needed to find Danielle before he told anyone so that when he did find her she wouldn't be too overwhelmed by all the attention from the family. If he found her first, he would be able to explain more fully before he introduced her to the others. As it was, he was at a loss as to how to find his wayward – his wayward – his wayward _daughter._ (And get used to that word!) He'd been searching the nearby area in a standard grid, both in the human world and Ghost Zone, but he knew he wasn't going to find her that way. He just had to figure out how to track her…

"DANNY!"

The halfa jumped and looked up. Everyone was looking at him in concern, even Paulina.

"What? Sorry, I was just, uh, thinking," he said. The others gave him one more worried look before his uncle Will spoke up.

"I was just asking if you were finished with your meal. Are you alright?"

Danny glanced around once more at the rest before he responded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Actually, can – _may_ I be excused?"

Will raised an eyebrow. "Only if you tell me why."

Danny met his eyes and for once told the truth. "I just really need to talk to Valerie about something."

When his uncle continued to stare at him waiting for more Danny scowled. "Something _private_. You're not getting anything else."

Will blinked and shifted in his seat. "I suppose. Just rinse off your plate before you go."

He really _didn't _need to know, and his nephew did have a right to his privacy.

…Ghost Zone…

The vast expanse of ectoplasm swirled and shifted idly in hues of green. A small island drifted past along with a few formless specters. Suddenly, the greens began to spiral faster and faster until a small natural portal had formed. It stayed only briefly, but that was all the time that was necessary for an even smaller form to fall through and land on the small island that had been pulled backwards by the motion of the forming portal.

The figure groaned as it sat up, gripping a head of tousled black hair which was styled in a low ponytail.

….

A/N: Can we say awkward? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this longer chapter. What did you think of Lancer interrogating Dash? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	32. Alliance

A/N: Another month gone by. I think it's safe to assume that this is going to be my regular schedule. Expect updates at the end of each month. Hopefully I can keep up _that_ much predictability.

Disclaimed.

…Elmerton…

"…twelve, thirteen, fourteen…," Valerie counted, pulling herself up on the bar in front of her Wanted poster…minus one ghost-boy. She couldn't bring herself to hate him anymore. There was far too much she didn't know. Maybe she could corner him sometime? She smirked. Just because she didn't hate him didn't mean that she had to like him. That, and it was fun to make him sweat.

_Tap, tap, tap._

Hopping down from her bar, Valerie narrowed her eyes at the window. There were only so many things that could have tapped on it and none of them were good in her opinion.

Activating her suit, the Huntress edged around her bed to look out the window. She scanned the littered street, trying to find the source of the disturbance. Seeing nothing but snow, she started to relax. It was probably nothing.

"Please don't shoot!"

This, of course, made the Huntress raise her ecto-gun in readiness.

"Give me one good reason not to!" she threatened, glaring out the window. Old habits die hard and there was only one ghost that was brazen enough to knock on her window.

"Danielle."

Valerie shifted from her defensive stance, though she kept her gun out. What?

"What about her?" she spat, resuming her stance. He knew she had a soft-spot for his cousin.

"I'm worried about her."

Valerie stilled, surrendering her aggression in the face of Phantom's sincerity. It was like hearing him defending Danielle all those months ago, when he'd begged and bargained for a chance to save her from Vlad. There was no deception in that tone or those words.

"Alright."

With Valerie's consent given, Phantom became visible and phased into the room. To her surprise, he set his feet firmly on the ground. They eyed each other warily. Neither was sure how to proceed since they'd never just _talked._ Yet, in some strange way it felt right.

"Why are you worried?" Valerie finally broke the stillness.

"I never should have let her go. I-I just," he closed his eyes, working his jaw as he dropped his head, "I didn't want her to see me surrender."

Valerie watched the ghost-boy in front of her, trying to figure out why he was confiding in her.

"No, no, that's not," he trailed off looking at the ceiling. He brought his head back down to look at her properly. "He knows where I live."

Valerie opened her mouth to ask who he meant but shut it as she realized that there really was only one person that he could be talking about.

"You were trying to protect her," she stated. It felt so strange defending Danny Phantom from himself, but it was the truth and it needed to be said.

Phantom looked at her startled, but Valerie continued with conviction as she came to the realization that it was the only thing about Phantom that she was sure about.

"Everything you did that night was to protect her. There's no fault in that."

"And yet," Phantom told her, his brows furrowing, "I may have put her in even worse danger. She's so much like me, Valerie. There's no telling what kind of trouble she could've gotten into.

And then there's the ice powers. When mine developed, they nearly destroyed me even with help. She has nowhere to go for help."

Valerie finally deactivated her weapon, eyeing Phantom with curiosity.

"Why are you here?" she asked, shaking her head slowly.

"You found her once."

…Bairdan…

Maddie smiled as she greeted Lord Adam Darrow, happier than she could ever say that this was the last political engagement that she and Jack would be required to attend before they went home.

"You're looking lovely this evening, Your Highness," Lord Darrow smiled pleasantly, lightly kissing her knuckles before straightening and releasing her hand.

"Thank you, Lord Darrow. You're looking well yourself," Maddie responded politely.

"Life has been good to me. And, please, call me Adam," the man insisted. Maddie's smile tightened as she wished that Jack was closer to her. She had known Adam Darrow when they were young. He had been handsome then with his dark hair and light green-gray eyes, and he had aged well. They had dated for a time while in school, but Maddie had broken it off after no more than a month. Most people, even _Alicia_ who was already a cynic at that point, hadn't understood her decision, but she stood by it. There had always been something just…_off_ about him.

"I'm glad things have worked out for you, Lord Darrow," Maddie told him. Her smile became much more genuine when she saw her husband coming closer. "Have you met my husband? Jack, this is Lord Darrow, Lord Darrow, Prince Jack."

"Nice to meet ya, Lord Darrow!" Jack boomed, grinning. Maddie smiled adoringly at her husband, pointedly ignoring Lord Darrow's narrowed eyes and reddening face.

"A pleasure, Your Highness," Darrow said through gritted teeth.

…Amity Park…

"So, why'd you want me to come alone?" Tucker asked as he stepped over the threshold.

"He's keeping something from us," Sam stated as she closed the door behind him and led him down to the home theater. Her parents might eavesdrop if they went to her room, but after overhearing one-too-many horror films they tended to avoid the theater if she and her friends went down there.

Tucker furrowed his eyebrows at her. It really wasn't as unusual as most people assumed for Danny to keep secrets from his friends.

"Sam…"

"No, Tucker. This is different," Sam interrupted, her eyes blazing. "You _know_ it is."

Tucker looked at his friend in concern.

"I'm not so sure it is, Sam," he told her, trying to figure out what was going through the Goth's head. She glared at him, her eyes just _daring _him to prove it.

Tucker crossed his arms and shifted his stance to match hers.

"He's stressed out, Sam. This thing with his family is _way_ out there from what we normally deal with. Ghost invasion? No problem. New power? Cool! Even the Fruitloop's schemes are just another day on the job. But this is _grief _and _politics_ and a whole other _country!" _He uncrossed his arms and scratched under the edge of his hat. He sighed and shrugged, "Maybe you're right about it being different, but…I don't know that it's something we need to worry about. He just seemed to be thinking hard about something."

"That's _exactly_ the point! Since when does Danny just _think hard_ about something?" Sam countered, not willing to give up without a fight. "When was the last time you saw Danny do that?"

Tucker thought about it. She had a good point. Danny tended to be more foolhardy and rash whenever he had to make a choice. Most of the time, of course, Danny only had maybe a split-second to make his decisions, but even when he has more time he still usually acts without thinking too much about it. Finally though, the techno-geek remembered one time when Danny did think hard about something.

"After he first had the accident," Tucker started, choosing his words carefully, "he thought about telling his parents for over a month."

"That was two years, ago Tucker. You know why he decided not to," Sam answered his statement warily. She could see where he was going with this, and she wasn't sure that she liked it.

"Yeah, but now he has that journal. What if his uncle was right?" Tucker pointed out. It made him nervous, too, but maybe it was time. Danny always did hate keeping secrets, despite now having so many.

Sam bit her lip. "Still, what about Vlad? If Danny's right, without the secret to hold him back, Vlad might make a direct attempt on Mr. Fenton's life. Do you think Danny's ready to face him head on?"

Tucker looked at Sam worriedly.

….

A/N: What did you think of Phantom's alliance with Valerie? And Lord Darrow? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	33. Dash's Bane

A/N: On with the show!

Disclaimed.

…Amity Park…

Dash fidgeted nervously. Since when was _Lancer_ so intense? Even if he suspected he was being lied to that interrogation he'd just gone through made no sense! On top of that, the teacher had failed to answer his question. Still, freaky as that was, he still wanted to know what the deal was with Fenton.

He just needed help.

Normally, his first pick was Kwan, but Kwan wasn't sneaky enough for what he needed. With the teachers seemingly on Fenton's side, that really only left one option: Paulina.

She had to have noticed how weird Fenturd and Jazz were acting lately. Better yet, she had a grudge against Lancer.

The only problem was how embarrassing it was going to be to admit he had followed Danny Fenton. Still, Dash Baxter was no wimp so he raised his fist to knock on the door and then waited.

And waited…

Dash frowned. Paulina hadn't said she was going out.

He was about to call her when with a flash of lights and a purring motor a car pulled up to the curb. Dash looked up curiously. Paulina had mentioned that her mom was dating some guy but she'd refuse to give any details. He knew the car didn't belong to Paulina or her parents so it had to belong to the man. He was surprised, though, that the vehicle looked familiar.

Realizing that Paulina might be mad if she realized he saw anything, Dash ducked to the side of the porch and hid away. He'd just have to call her later.

"He'll be alright, won't he? I didn't mean to upset him," Paulina's mom asked someone, probably her boyfriend.

"It wasn't you, Pom," a shockingly familiar voice sighed. _LANCER?_

"No _way!_" Dash gasped.

"I don't know _what_ is wrong with him!" Lancer continued, sounding frustrated.

"I wonder if he's getting back together with Valerie," Paulina mused.

Dash risked a peek above the top step. Lancer, Paulina, and Paulina's mom were standing on the curb by Lancer's beat up blue sedan.

"I honestly don't think so. If it was something that simple…," Lancer shook his head. "I'll ask Damon, but I don't think that's what's going on."

"Well, we can only hope that it isn't as big as it seems," Pomona said, giving Lancer a quick kiss.

"You know, no one actually answered my question earlier," Paulina pouted. "Why _is_ there all this secrecy?"

The two adults shared a loaded look. Pomona seemed to be pleading with Lancer and Lancer seemed to be debating something. And like most sane men in the face of such a beauty, the teacher caved.

"I can't tell you right now," Lancer started, "I have to talk to my sister first."

Dash shuddered. Lancer's sister was _real?_ He'd always just thought the picture Lancer showed students to guilt-trip his students into studying harder was just Lancer in a dress. It didn't work on him, but he knew some studied harder out of pity for Lancer's desperation.

"You have to understand that this doesn't just affect me; it affects my family, too. Your mother and I were originally going to wait until after the wedding to tell you, but we'll see."

Paulina was startled, since she'd learned not to expect to get what she wanted from her step-father-to-be.

"Don't look so surprised, Paulina. We were always going to tell you about this, but considering the circumstances…. It seemed more prudent to wait." Lancer explained.

"I'm guessing I have to wait to find out what the circumstances were too, huh?" Paulina sighed, resigned but glad that she was going to get answers.

"Actually, I can explain some of those when we get inside," Pomona smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow, Will."

This time it was Lancer that initiated the kiss before he finally got back in his car and drove away.

Dash stayed hidden until Paulina and her mom were inside the house before he slunk away still gaping. Paulina's mom was _marrying _Lancer? And what was with all the talk of secrets? Dash groaned.

"I hate mysteries."

…

A/N: Poor Dash. His head's going to explode if I keep dropping mysteries in his lap like this without giving him any answers. Tell me what you thought in a review, and as alwaysALOHA.


	34. Confrontation

A/N: On with the story.

Disclaimed.

…Pomona's House…

Paulina looked expectantly at her mother, more than ready for some answers. Seeing this, Pomona pointedly took her time putting away her coat. Disgruntled, Paulina followed her mother's example and put her coat in the hall closet and removed her stylish boots.

"I suppose you won't rest until I explain those circumstances to you, huh?" Pomona asked, bemused. She really couldn't blame her daughter for her curiosity. After all, thrown into the same situation, she knew that she would probably be just as annoyed at being kept in the dark.

"Not a chance," Paulina quipped.

Pom nodded and gestured towards the cream-colored sofa in the living room. Once they were both seated, the elder of the two smoothed out her skirt and began her explanation.

"Jazz and Danny didn't know Will was their uncle until just before they went to Bairdan for the funeral. They found out by accident while Danny was doing research for that personal heritage project you all got."

"They didn't know?" Paulina scoffed, but when her mother kept giving her a steady look her eyes scrunched up in confusion. "They really didn't know? Why?"

"Will didn't want them to expect deferential treatment and he didn't want to risk that he would give it without realizing it," Pom answered. "That's not all, I think part of it was that he and their parents wanted to protect them."

"Protect them from what?" Paulina asked.

"Will's brother," Pom started carefully, knowing that she was treading in dangerous waters, "has – _had_ a very prominent job back in Bairdan. That job now belongs to Maddie and Jack Fenton. If any connection was made between the Fenton family here and Garrett, the paparazzi would pester them as relentlessly as they pursue that ghost boy you're always going on about. They would have no privacy."

Paulina's eyebrows rose at the idea that the Fentons were related to someone famous and potentially powerful was one that she had never really considered a possibility before. They were the Fentons! Shaking her head, Paulina decided to think about that bit later.

"But why would it make a difference if anyone knew Mrs. Fenton was Mr. Lancer's sister?" she asked.

"Because they know that Will lives and works here. They know that he has a sister. The point is to keep anyone from finding out that she lives here with her husband and children. Up until the funeral, Maddie managed to disappear rather thoroughly. Nobody ever suspected that such a respectable young lady like her would go into ghost hunting as a career. As it is now, she and Jack will not be ghost hunting when they return from their trip." Pomona smiled sadly.

"The Fentons _not_ ghost hunting?" Paulina spluttered. It wasn't that she thought the Fentons were the best ghost hunters in town (that was her Ghost Boy) but the idea of the family acting like normal people and _not _doing the job they loved so much was unbelievable. "Why?"

Pomona gave her daughter a sympathetic look. She understood all too well her disbelief. The news would sound surreal to _anyone_ who'd so much as met the Fenton adults.

"It's too dangerous. Until Jazz is of age, Maddie is the last person eligible for the job."

"What kind of job- ?" Paulina started to ask, but was cut off by a look from her mother.

The answer to the question she'd been trying to ask was one she could not give her yet.

There was a time when the teenager would have thrown a fit and demanded an answer then and there. Instead, though, she nodded her acceptance of the fact that that was all the information she was going to get that night.

Thanking her mother for the explanation, much to Pomona's pleased surprise, Paulina went up the stairs to get ready for bed after the long and confusing night.

…Casper High, the next day…

Paulina drove her pink scooter into the parking lot of the school, still thinking about what she had learned. It had cleared up some things about the Fenton family that she'd been wondering about even while it made other things more mysterious than before. After all, what kind of job could her mother have been talking about? It also didn't explain why Danny and Jazz kept arguing every time it came up.

Paulina sighed then almost choked on the yelp that followed it almost immediately. For a moment, she panicked, afraid she was being kidnapped. After all, she'd considered the possibility that the job was with the mafia – at least until the idea of Jack Fenton as the Godfather sent her rolling in a fit of giggles. Shaking her head to rid it of the ridiculous notion from the night before, Paulina looked around the janitor's closet for her attacker only to scowl when she saw who it was.

"What the heck, Dash! Why did you do that?" she growled. Dash took a step back from her in instinctive fear of her wrath before he could catch himself.

"_Lancer?_" he hissed.

"What about him?" she snapped defensively. Was Dash overshadowed? He was acting so strange.

"_What about him?_" Dash mocked angrily. "I needed your help with something, so when you didn't answer your phone last night, I went to your house. I _saw_ him drop you and your mom off!"

Paulina jerked back as though she'd been slapped. Dash knew. He _knew!_ She stared back at him with wide eyes, afraid of what he would do with the information.

Dash nearly flinched when he saw Paulina's reaction to his words. It almost looked like she was genuinely afraid of him. He didn't mean to scare her, but he was so angry that she hadn't said anything to him. They were friends, weren't they?

Before either of them could break the stunned silence that had followed the quarterback's angry confession the door slammed open and a determined-looking Danny Fenton skid to a halt at the sight of the two A-listers.

"I-uh-heh, took a wrong, heh… eh, I saw noth-yelp!" Danny stuttered, his face flushed bright red at what he probably thought he'd walked in on before Dash grabbed him by the shirt-front and shoved him up against the now-closed door.

"THAT'S IT! I WANT ANSWERS, FENTON!" Dash yelled, shaking the smaller boy lightly. "What's going on? Where's Bairdan? Why-?"

"Let him go, Dash."

Both boys turned to look in shock at the popular girl in response to her quiet order. Paulina's eyes darted between the two boys in alarm but lifted her chin when she saw that Dash was still holding Danny up against the door.

"Let. Him. Go, Dash," she repeated.

"Why should I? What's going on, Paulina?" Dash asked, still confused.

While Dash was distracted, Danny smacked the quarterback's hands off of him and dropped to the ground. Normally he wouldn't bother, but he really did have to get out of here to deal with whichever ghost had set off his ghost sense.

"Look, Dash, I don't know how you found out about Bairdan, but it's none of your business," Danny told him. It took all of his willpower to sound casual and force his heartbeat to slow down from the panic that had arisen from hearing Dash mention Bairdan. If he dug any deeper…..

Danny shook his head of the thought. It didn't matter. He turned to leave the closet but stopped. It was obvious now that he hadn't barged in on a make-out session and he wanted to find out what _was _going on between Dash and Paulina. At the very least it was suspicious.

"What was going on in here, anyway?"

"None of your business, Fenturd!" Dash scowled.

"Shut up, Dash," Danny and Paulina chorused. Both jerked back from each other, creeped out.

"Paulina?" Danny prompted after a moment.

"It's nothing," Paulina lied. "He just wanted to ask me something."

Danny regarded the two popular kids warily before nodding slowly. "If you're sure."

"_Yes!_ Now get out of here, Loser," Paulina huffed, uncomfortable with his obvious concern. Or more accurately, uncomfortable with how nice it felt to have someone looking out for her.

Without another word, Danny left to find a better hiding place to transform in so he could deal with the ghost and get back to class. He'd just have to talk to his uncle after class about Dash.

And Paulina.

….

A/N: Sorry about the delay; I had to rewrite the second part because Paulina was completely out of character. Oops. Looks like I broke Dash. I was going to wait a little longer before that but this seemed like a good place to put it. Tell me what you thought in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	35. Prince Houdini

A/N: I know I haven't said it enough, but thank you guys so much for your reviews and favs! They really do mean a lot to me especially with how incredibly loooong this story is turning out to be. Sorry about the delay folks – busy week.

Disclaimed.

…..Casper High…

"What did you want to speak to me about?" Mr. Lancer asked his nephew.

"I-uh, I ran into Dash and Paulina earlier," Danny started but looked around nervously for eavesdroppers before continuing. "I don't know how much he knows, but Dash knows about Bairdan."

"I know."

"You _what?_" Danny yelped. "How? I mean, how does he-...?"

"He eavesdropped on you and your father in the park last week," Will explained calmly. "He came to me asking how to spell it, probably so he could look it up."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Danny demanded grasping at his hair.

"Because I thought I'd taken care of the problem. Obviously not." Will frowned in consternation. He shouldn't have underestimated the quarterback. "Now, you mentioned Paulina was there?"

Danny frowned. "Yeah, and it looked like Dash had cornered her. I don't think it had anything to do with Bairdan but all she said was that he was trying to ask her something. And I don't think he was asking her to the next school dance."

"Where exactly did this confrontation occur?" Lancer inquired, back in teacher-mode.

"Does it really matter?" Danny answered hastily.

Lancer raised his eyebrow. "Daniel. This is not the time to be keeping secrets."

Danny flinched. He didn't want to say anything but Lancer was right. He wouldn't have been half so suspicious if he'd run into them in the hall.

He opened his mouth to answer – only for his ghost sense to go off. Instantly alert, he scanned the room looking for the cause.

"I'm waiti – yah!"

"Mr. Lancer!" Danny yelled but stopped himself from acting when he saw just who it was that had grabbed his uncle/ teacher.

Glaring at the intruder and clenching his fists, Danny hissed, "What are you doing here?"

…Parking lot…

"Sam, Tucker!" Jazz waved at the duo as she made her way to her car.

Seeing the older redhead, the two crossed the parking lot and joined her at her car.

"Hey Jazz," Sam greeted her.

"Have you two seen Danny or Mr. Lancer?" Jazz asked, cutting to the point.

"I think Danny wanted to talk to Lancer about something," Tucker shrugged.

"Hey, do you think we could get a ride? There's something I wanted to talk to you about," Sam interrupted. She had been thinking about it for a while now but she hadn't really decided until just now. With both Danny and Mr. Lancer out of the way, maybe she could convince Jazz to tell her what was going on with Danny.

…Airport…..

Jack groaned in relief as he popped the last kink in his back from the long flight. Sure, they had a nifty private jet, but that was a long time to be in such a small space for such a big guy.

"HOME SWEET HOME!" he shouted joyfully. Maddie chuckled and quietly reprimanded her husband for being so loud. "Well, almost," he added sheepishly.

Maddie walked ahead of Jack to the baggage claim.

"You know, Jack, it's only two, maybe if we hurry we can get back in time to surprise the kids after school," she mused. There was a slight chill in the air, but she brushed it off as nothing. That is, she brushed it off until she realized that Jack had not responded. Suddenly realizing that they were back in Amity Park and that a strange chill usually meant ghosts, Maddie whirled around to find the airport behind her was devoid of her cheerful teddy bear of a husband. "Jack? JACK!"

…..

A/N: Obnoxiously short, I know, especially after such a long wait, but this is mostly just set up. Who do you think did it? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA.

P.S. I'll be out of town for the end of this month, so the next update will either be earlier or later than usual, depending on how much writing I can get done.


	36. Against the Rules

A/N: This one just did not want to come out! I finally figured out how to write this chapter.

Disclaimed.

…Ghost Zone…

Dani could almost ignore the sounds now. She'd been in this cell for a few days now. After she'd fallen through that stupid natural portal Dani had floated miserably until she'd found an unoccupied cave to die in. Because, of course, she'd been _sick_ when she fell through the portal. It was only a couple days later that the guards had found her, too weak to even go ghost, let alone fight back. Or maybe it only felt like days?

Whatever. It really didn't matter. All that mattered was that they'd taken the little human girl and thrown her in the _one_ cell in the whole place that her human form couldn't walk straight through. It was hard enough sleeping with her throat- no, _everything_ hurting, but the other prisoners constantly whined and moaned and shrieked and what did they think any of that would _help?_ Eventually though, she'd learned to tune them out, especially when the guards didn't do more than shove in a tray of what she thought was _supposed_ to be food. No one spoke to her and no one listened. At first she was just fine with that, but her throat had gotten so bad lately that it was hard to breathe. She needed help but the door never opened.

Until now.

Dani turned her head blearily from where she was curled up on the stone floor to look as the figure of a rather large man was tossed inside with an audible "Oomph!" as the air left his lungs. He turned around to try to escape but despite being faster than she expected, he wasn't quite fast enough to get out.

"HEY! Let me outta here!" he bellowed pounding on the door with fists almost as big as her aching head. She whimpered at the noise before stifling a groan at the pain this caused her throat.

The man continued to pound on the door for another minute, shouting about how they'll "never get away with this!" and "No ghost gets the best of Jack Fenton!" before realizing that it wasn't going to do him any good and turning around.

Wait.

Jack Fenton?

Dani's eyes widened as it finally hit her that her new cell mate was Danny's dad!

In this same moment, Jack finally saw that he was not alone.

The two stared at each other unblinkingly before Dani's body shuddered and she was forced to squeeze her eyes shut to keep from vocalizing her pain.

It didn't even register to her that if Danny's dad was here, Danny would be coming. All she knew was that she hurt. And she was still very much alone.

"Hey, there," she heard. Danny's dad's voice was soft. There was something there that was soothing, but she couldn't let herself relax. It was just a trick. It was always just a trick.

Something touched her head and in a panic she flinched away and scrambled backwards weakly.

"Easy there, Kiddo," Jack placated, trying to calm the little girl. "I'm not gonna hurt'cha."

Again, he reached forward so he could check her temperature. There was no doubt in his mind that the girl had a fever - the flush in her otherwise too-pale cheeks was evidence of that, but he needed to see just how high that fever was. This time, though the girl flinched she didn't try to move away, though that could be more from lack of energy than lack of desire.

Jack frowned. Her fever was _high_. He hoped Maddie found him soon, and then they could get this girl to a doctor.

He shifted so that he was sitting next to her before putting his hand back on her head, though this time he ran his fingers through the sweaty raven hair in the hopes that it would give her some comfort. He could only hope that they were rescued soon.

He murmured quietly to the girl. Little endearments that he used to use for Jazzy or Danny when they were sick. Just like he wanted to do back then, he wanted to make the hurt go away, but just like back then, this was the most he could offer. He wasn't a doctor. Well, he _was_, just not the kind that could help a sick little kid.

As he sat there, he couldn't help but wonder how this child had wound up in the Ghost Zone of all places. Did those evil ghosts kidnap her too? And what about her parents? They had to be worried sick!

He didn't even know who this girl was and he was worried.

"What's your name, Kiddo?" he asked. He didn't really expect an answer, but it made him feel better to ask. It felt like he was doing something.

The girl's head shifted under his hand, and she opened her mouth. Her lips moved as she tried to form an answer and Jack grew alarmed as he could see just how much the effort was costing her.

"Hey! Hey, now! Don't go answering me if it hurts!" Jack ordered her. "I wasn't even really askin'! I'll find out later when we get outta this mess! _When you get better._ We're gonna get outta here, I promise!"

"Don't be making promises you can't keep," a deep sinister voice scolded. "That's against the rules."

"LET US GO, WALKER! You have no – oomph!"

"DANNY!" Jack yelled, alarmed as his son was thrown face first into the cell.

Jack jumped to his feet as quickly as he could, but Danny was faster. His boy was already on his feet with a snarl on his face and his fist already flying toward the skeletal white ghost in a fedora. Unfortunately, the ghost seemed to have anticipated Danny's quick recovery because he lashed out with a glowing green baton that was cracking with electricity. Though the baton never found its mark, the threat gave the ghost just enough time to slam the door closed.

Danny rushed forward and body-slammed the door, making it rattle in its frame. Danny slammed his full body into the door four times before giving it up for a lost cause. He glared at the door so fiercely that Jack kept his distance as his son seethed, panting in anger rather than exertion.

"_Da-a-anny?"_ the little girl croaked out, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes from the pain.

Jack turned to look at her, surprised. She knew his son? Looking back at Danny, Jack saw that his whole body had gone still at the sound. His eyes were wide but he remained facing the door as though in a trance.

Danny definitely knew her, but from where? And why would it cause such a strong reaction?

"Danny?" Jack asked tentatively. Danny remained unmoving, though Jack was sure his Adam's apple had bobbed briefly. Cautiously, not wanting to startle him, Jack reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Danny-boy?"

He gave the shoulder a little shake. "Danny?"

Danny exhaled sharply and whipped his head around to look at his dad.

"D-dad?" Danny asked, eyes wide with shock.

Jack opened his mouth to ask the question that was on the tip of his tongue, to ask how his son knew this little girl, but instead he opted for something less confusing.

"What happened to you? How'd that ghost get you?"

…Casper High…

Paulina pouted when a third turn of her key proved that the gas gauge was not lying. She was out of gas.

"Stupid scooter," she huffed. Still, at least there was no one around to see.

She bit her lip as she thought about her options. She couldn't walk home in her new shoes. All of her friends were gone for the day, except Dash, but she refused to ask him for a ride. It was humiliating enough that he knew Lancer was going to be her new stepfather, and she didn't want to take the risk that he'd realized she knew more about what was going on with Danny than she should. She didn't understand why she was trying to protect the loser's secrets, but that didn't really matter. She wasn't going to say anything and that was that.

She slumped in her seat as she tried to decide what to do. Jazz and the losers had already left, and her parents were both working, so she couldn't ask them except….

Paulina groaned as she realized that she was left with only one choice: Lancer.

She stalled for as long as she could, even going so far as turning her key in the ignition one more time, before getting off of the scooter and dragging her feet back into the school building. She stood at the door, trying to figure out whether he would be in his office or his classroom. Finally figuring that he was probably in his classroom, since he hardly ever used his office, she started walking there.

"Mr. Lancer? Could you give me a ride, my scooter's out of – AHHH!" Paulina screamed as she walked into the classroom to find Mr. Lancer on the ground with a nasty cut on his temple with an even nastier bruise forming around it.

"Mr. Lancer! Mr. Lancer, wake up!" she yelled shaking his shoulder. "Somebody help! HELP!"

When nobody came at her calls for help she searched for her phone so she could call an ambulance. When she didn't find it in her pockets or her purse she started rummaging through her backpack even though she _never_ put it in there.

"Are you freaking _kidding _me?!" she shrieked.

She looked around the classroom hopelessly before she remembered that Dash was still here. Then she remembered _why_ Dash was still at school.

"Football practice! Ms. Tetslaff!" she said, getting up off of the floor and sprinting to the door and out towards the practice field.

"Ms. Tetslaff! MS. TETSLAFF!" she screamed as she got closer to the field. The burly coach jogged towards the frantic teenager and gripped her by the shoulders.

"Sanchez! What's wrong?" she asked. This had better not be about a broken nail. The girl blubbered uselessly.

"Use _words_, Sanchez!" Tetslaff scowled, giving the girl a firm shake.

"Mr. Lancer! Someone knocked him out! He won't wake up! He won't wake u-up," Paulina hiccupped. "I couldn't f-find my phone to call ni-nine-one-one!"

"Where?" the gym teacher barked, now thoroughly alarmed.

"Hi-hihis - !" Paulina stammered.

"Where, Sanchez?"

"His classroom!"

"Baxter, take Sanchez home. I'll send the police there if they need her," Ms. Tetslaff orderd. "Practice is over!" 

Practically shoving the cheerleader into Dash's arms Tetslaff ran inside to find her co-worker and see just how badly he was injured. Hopefully, Sanchez was overreacting.

Arriving at the classroom, Tetslaff paused in the doorway to assess the situation. She could see why Sanchez panicked. Lancer's temple was already turning an ugly shade of purple and the blood from the small cut there was starting to trickle down his forehead. Crouching down to his side, Tetslaff reached out the fore and middle fingers of her left hand to check for a pulse and was relieved to find that it was not only there but strong and steady.

Reassured that he would survive, Tetslaff reached forward to pull back his eyelids to check for a concussion but stopped at a groan from the previously unresponsive man.

"Lancer?"

Another groan sounded from the man before his eyelids started to flutter.

"Come on, Lancer, wake up." Tetslaff muttered. It would be much better if he woke up sooner rather than later. Especially considering the familiar blue backpack that had spilled some of its contents on the floor. She wouldn't think that much about it except that it was in the middle of the floor at the front of the classroom and at least four desks had been pushed out of their neat little rows. There was a struggle.

It was another minute before the English teacher's eyes finally opened and another few seconds after that before awareness returned to them.

Lancer sat up abruptly.

"Danny!" he shouted swinging his head around to search the classroom for any signs of his nephew. He stopped quickly and his hand tenderly touched the tender spot at his temple where that ghost hit him after he'd restrained Danny.

"What happened?" Tetslaff asked, getting straight to the point. Lancer would be fine, if mildly concussed, but it was pretty obvious to her that Fenton was missing.

"Danny!" Lancer repeated. "There- there was a ghost! The one that invaded Amity Park two years ago when the mayor was attacked. Damn it! He used me to get to Danny! They've taken him!"

…

A/N: I hope this makes up for the long wait. What did you think? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA!


	37. More to the Story

A/N: Life happened.

Disclaimed.

…Amity Park…

Dash turned his eyes back to the road for the second time in as many minutes. After Fenton had left the janitor's closet Dash had stepped in front of the door to keep Paulina from leaving. He was just so _sick _of all the secrets and the mysteries! As he stood in her way she began to open and close her fists even as her face became red and tears slid from the corners of her eyes. She wouldn't tell him anything, and they'd stood there for so long just glaring at each other that he almost broke down and let her go. Finally, though, she looked away and told him the truth in the coldest tone he'd ever heard. In that moment, he truly believed she hated him.

Since when did he and Paulina get so far apart?

Now, he didn't know what to think as she sat in the passenger seat of his new blue convertible. She'd avoided him for the rest of the school day and if popularity had one drawback it was that you were typically the first and hottest topic for gossip. Everyone was talking about Paulina's refusal to look at him. Even the geeks! A few had even noticed the way Fenton glared at him suspiciously and come to their own conclusions. It was all crazy and stupid and messed up and he felt more sorry than ever that he'd cornered her.

Because if he hadn't cornered her, she would have come to him when she needed a ride instead of going to Lancer and if she had come to him she wouldn't have been the one to find the unconscious teacher. He'd give anything to forget the sight of her running towards the football field in hysterics.

He glanced at the girl in his passenger seat again. He'd give anything to see her _not_ looking out the windshield with that absolutely _blank_ expression on her face.

Dash bit his lip and pulled the car over. He didn't really understand why Paulina was taking this whole mess as badly as she was, considering that not that long ago she seemed to despise Lancer, but he did get that finding Lancer like that was freaky. He also got that nothing _he_ said would help.

"Why did you stop?" Paulina asked, but he barely heard her and she didn't seem to care all that much.

"Where does your mom work?" he asked. At last, Paulina turned to look at him and it was a relief to see the surprise replace that horrible blankness.

"What?"

Dash hunched his shoulders and scratched his head. They didn't do this. No one in the A-list talked about serious stuff and feelings – it was too risky. One wrong word and all your biggest secrets could be all over the school, especially if you were at the top.

"I just thought, I mean…." Dash trailed off, averting his eyes. Couldn't she just tell him where her mom worked so he could take her there? He wasn't good at this stuff.

Paulina tilted her head so she could see him better. She couldn't remember the last time any of her friends had "just thought" of doing something for her like this.

"Dash?" she prodded.

The discomfited jock turned back to face her expectantly.

Paulina thought about what Dash had just tried to do for her. She wanted to tell him everything that she had held back when she'd told him the truth in the janitor's closet about her doubts and the Fenton's connection to Lancer. She wanted to explain how she was beginning to think maybe she could tolerate Lancer as her stepfather and Jazz and Danny Fenton as her cousins. She even opened her mouth to tell him but no sound came out.

"Paulina?" Dash asked, confused and afraid that she'd slip back into that weird zombie-state she was in earlier.

"It's too far," Paulina told him instead of what she wanted to say. She just couldn't do it. She couldn't take the risk.

"You sure? I mean – ." Dash panicked.

"Just take me home," she insisted, hugging herself.

…Airport…

"JACK!" Maddie cried one more time even though she knew by now that it was pointless. A ghost had taken her husband.

"Maddie!" a familiar voice called out. The redheaded princess turned around searching the crowd for the source of the voice.

"Damon!" Maddie called, grateful for a friendly face. "Damon, Jack-!"

"Has just been taken by a ghost, I know," Damon answered quickly, taking her arm in his to escort her out of the building. "We need to get you home and under a ghost shield."

"The _hell_ I'm going under a shield when some ghost scum has my husband!" Maddie railed against him. "I am the ghost hunter here!"

Damon huffed impatiently. "I understand that, I do, but there are things going on here that you don't understand. I just can't explain _here_."

"What do you mean?" Maddie narrowed her eyes at the secret serviceman.

"I saw the ghost take Jack," Damon admitted. "I was just too far away to do anything about it."

"Which ghost?" Maddie demanded, stopping just outside the door to the airport, forcing him to face her.

Damon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I think your files identify him as the Wisconsin Ghost. Now, can we please get you back to FentonWorks? You'll need weapons anyway."

Maddie's eyebrows rose in surprise. "You're not going to stop me?"

"Would I succeed?" Damon asked with a wry grin. He knew all-too-well how fruitless it would be to stand in her way.

Maddie smirked and headed straight for the parked GAV.

...FentonWorks…

Jazz paced in front of her bed as Sam and Tucker watched her expectantly. When Sam had asked her what she knew about Danny's problem with the word "clone" Jazz had tried to deny knowing anything. After all, she was the one who asked them first whether they knew why Danny reacted so strongly to it just over a month and a half ago.

Sam wasn't deterred.

She had been quick to point out the one great flaw in Jazz's logic: Jazz was just as stubborn as Sam when it came to Danny. The older girl was conflicted. On the one hand, she had promised her brother she wouldn't tell anyone about what she had figured out, yet on the other, Sam and Tucker were his best friends and they were worried. Jazz bit her lip and made another pass of the bed. There had to be a solution, she knew it. She just had to figure out what that solution could be.

"Jazz," Sam prodded, raising her eyebrows pointedly. Tucker looked between the two girls uncertainly. He still wasn't entirely sure that it was any of their business, but he knew that something had to give. Danny _was_ keeping stuff from them beyond his problem with clones. He and Sam had decided that Jazz probably wouldn't know if Danny was planning to tell their parents about his ghost half, but they were both convinced that the halfa had confided in his sister about the matter of clones since she hadn't asked _them_ about it in weeks.

"Look," Jazz said, finally coming to a decision, "Danny _is_ planning on telling you about this himself. I can't imagine a situation in which he wouldn't. But I promised not to say and you know how seriously Danny takes promises."

Sam crossed her arms and scowled as she took a step toward the redhead. "I know he takes his promises seriously, but I also know that he relies on _us _to knock some sense into that thick skull of his. We can't do that if we don't know what's going on."

"And I know what is going on," Jazz sighed, finally sitting on her bed. "I think you need to trust Danny on this one, okay? There's really nothing we can do to help."

Tucker was just about to speak up to mention that maybe they should just trust Jazz's judgement when the phone rang and the he heard the front door open.

"Jazz! Danny!" they heard Mrs. Fenton call out frantically. Sharing a worried look, the teens hurried down the stairs.

"Mom?" Jazz responded, "Mr. Gray? What's going on? Where's Dad?"

"Your father's been taken by a ghost. Mr. Gray told me it was the Wisconsin Ghost but he also claims there's more to it. Where's Danny?" Maddie explained, looking at each teen and finally noticing that her son wasn't among them.

"Dad's been taken by the Wisconsin ghost?" Jazz asked with more alarm than Maddie thought was warranted. Yes, ghosts were dangerous but Jack knew how to handle them. Mr. Gray's eyes zeroed in on the girl immediately.

"You know," he stated, more surprised than he probably should have been. It was no secret that Jazz was a psychology prodigy.

"Know what?" Jazz responded innocently.

"WHAT?" Tucker exclaimed and all eyes turned to him. While everyone else was concentrating on Mrs. Fenton's news about Jack, Tucker had gone to answer the phone. He figured it was Danny calling to say he'd somehow found out about the Fruitloop's attack and was dealing with it.

"Tucker?" Mrs. Fenton prodded. The wide-eyed techno-geek didn't respond to her. Instead, he continued talking to whoever was on the phone.

"Jazz is fine. Can you describe the ghost?"

There was a moment of tense silence as Tucker listened to the response, a frown forming on his face.

"No need, Mrs. Fenton and Mr. Gray are here. Mr. Fenton's been taken, too."

Tucker listened for another minute and nodded before responding vocally. "Yeah. Yeah, of course. I'll borrow the GAV."

Another moment as Tucker listened.

"Yeah, I got it last month," he answered. "Bye."

"Which ghost?" Sam asked, already knowing what the call was about.

"Walker."

"Kids?" Maddie said. What had happened now?

Tucker, Sam, and Jazz fidgeted for a moment under the older woman's scrutiny. Like most of Amity Park, the trio had come to expect Danny to be late, but unlike everyone else, they knew what kept him. To them, this was not that different from normal.

"Danny's been taken," Tucker finally told her. "The ghost…Walker, used Lancer as a hostage against him. Lancer was knocked out – he's okay – but Paulina was the one who found him. Tetslaff's driving him here, but he asked me to go get Paulina since her mom's got a long commute, and he's not sure how she'd feel about Tetslaff knowing about him and her mom."

"Forget Parliament's ban on ghost hunting! My husband and my baby need me!" Maddie declared. She strode across the room in direction of the lab, ready to don her jumpsuit for the first time in far too long.

"Wait!" Damon called out. "The Wisconsin Ghost is Vlad Masters."

…Walker's Prison, Ghost Zone…

"…and as soon as my hands were cuffed he knocked Uncle Will out!" Danny finished with his head in his hands. Jack's brow furrowed at his son's story.

"Why did he go to so much trouble?"

"Huh?" Danny asked.

Jack's eyes were sharp as he looked at his son. "Why didn't he just grab you? Why use a hostage?"

Understanding washed over the teen's features followed closely by indecision. There was something more to this whole situation and Jack was tired of letting it go.

"Danny?"

The troubled boy lifted his eyes.

"I…" Danny's voice seemed to stick on the word. Was this it? Was it finally time?

There was a whimper from the corner of the cell behind Jack.

"Dani," Danny breathed out, rushing forward to check on the little girl.

"How do you know her?" Jack asked as his son fussed over the sick child. "Danny, I need you to tell me now. No more secrets."

Danny turned distraught crystal blue eyes to his father briefly before returning his attention to the girl. Jack watched him for a moment as he fussed over her. He'd never seen his son behave quite like this before. Then again, there were a lot of things he didn't know about Danny.

Seeing that Danny seemed to be at a loss as to what to do after he pulled the scrunchie out of her hair and the hat off her head, Jack pulled off his jacket and started tucking the girl in just as he'd done for his kids when they were small. The gratitude on Danny's face was almost too much and it worried him. Just what was his relationship to this girl?

"Danny-boy," Jack sighed, "I know I told you I was willing to wait for you to tell me the truth, but…I just, I don't know what to think anymore!"

Jack threw his arms in the air hopelessly. "I'm a ghost hunter, Danny. By all rights, I should've been the one these ghosts needed leverage to catch and yet it was you they put more effort into kidnapping. What are you hiding, Son? 'Cause I don't know what to think."

Danny gently threaded his fingers through Dani's hair, untangling it the best that he could as he thought. He was worried about how high her fever was getting. He knew that they needed to get out of here and he knew that going ghost was their best bet of doing that, but how was he supposed to start? How did he explain two years' worth of lies?

"It's…It started with the lab accident," Danny began, swallowing down his nerves. It was time.

…

A/N: Trick or Treat?


	38. Revealing Predicaments

A/N: Hi!

Disclaimed.

…FentonWorks…

"_Wait!" Damon called out. "The Wisconsin Ghost is Vlad Masters."_

The three teens present all stared at Damon in shock and a hint of fear. _Fear?_

"Mr. Gray?" Jazz voiced tentatively. Sam and Tucker eyed him warily from beside her.

"I," Damon bit out, only to be cut off by the queen-to-be.

"Damon, I understand that Vlad is unpleasant, but what you're suggesting is impossible," Maddie dismissed, turning to continue on her way. Indecisive glances flickered between Tucker, Sam, and Jazz.

"I know it's impossible," he reasoned desperately. "I know. That doesn't make it any less true."

Maddie shook her head, her lips pressed tight. Why was Damon doing this? She needed to get to Jack and her baby.

"We don't have time for this," she snapped. Maddie opened the door to the basement and swiftly disappeared into the darkness with no further delay.

Jazz chewed on her lip, closed her eyes, and stepped forward. With one final breath for courage, the redhead followed her mother down to the lab.

It was time.

…Walker's Prison, Ghost Zone…

Danny looked down at the ailing girl resting on his lap while his dad watched him intently. He knew he needed to continue. He'd already started so why was this so hard?

"Danny?" Jack prodded. He was trying to be patient, he really was, but he and Maddie had already figured out that everything began with the accident. What he needed to know was what happened _after_ the accident.

"It," Danny swallowed, his hand shaking so much that he crossed his arms to keep from disturbing Dani. "It did something to my DNA or something. I don't really know all that much about what _exactly_ happened, just that it did, and well…." He shook his head. "Despite everything that's happened in the last couple of years, despite how much the accident hurt…I'm glad it happened, Dad."

The young man met his father's eyes, his gaze steady and set. For the first time in a long time, Jack felt like he was getting the full truth from his son. It was a relief.

"Danny," Jack asked, his tone far from the boisterous noise most associated with the man, "why do you think the accident affected your DNA?"

Danny shifted uncomfortably and reached up a hand to rub at the back of his neck.

"I know because," Danny paused, thinking. He didn't want to try transforming just yet. Walker had used the Plasmius Maximus on him the moment Uncle Will was unconscious and while Danny had worked up a level of immunity to the device, he only had a limited range of powers available to him.

"I know, because…I can do stuff like this," Danny confessed, his hand and eyes beginning to glow an icy blue.

Jack stared in awe as his son made a cold compress out of thin air and applied it the feverish girl's throat, soothing some of her pain.

"There's…more, but Walker used something called the Plasmius Maximus that keeps me from using much else. It'll be another few minutes before it wears off completely. As it is, it's probably for the best if Walker and Plasmius _don't _realize I've figured out how to keep some of my powers."

Jack nodded. He wasn't entirely sure who Plasmius was, but anything that gave them an advantage sounded good to him.

"So, what else can ya do, Son?" Jack questioned, his enthusiasm mounting.

Danny laughed, exhilarated. He knew he still hadn't told his dad everything, but even with the bombshell of his identity left to tell, he felt freer than he had in a while.

"I can do a lot, Dad, and you and Mom have both seen what I can do – you just didn't know it was me," Danny told him. Jack raised his eyebrows at that. How could he and Maddie not recognize their son? The very idea was ridiculous, yet here was Danny telling him that that is exactly what happened.

"I'm Danny Phantom, Dad."

…Amity Park…

Paulina glared at Dash, though her heart wasn't all in it. They'd gotten to her house ten minutes ago, but Dash had refused to leave her alone. Under normal circumstances she might have appreciated his concern, but right now all it did was keep her from going to FentonWorks. If someone had told her just a month ago that she would prefer Danny Fenton's company to Dash Baxter's she would have laughed in their faces, but at the moment that's exactly how she felt. Danny hadn't bothered to even pretend that everything was okay when Lancer introduced the ghost hunters as his family. He just treated her like she was already his cousin to tease.

And when it came down to it, he'd gotten protective of her when he found her and Dash in the closet that morning. She didn't really understand why yet, but that meant something to her.

"Dash, can you please just go? I'll be _fine_," Paulina insisted. "I just need some time _alone!_"

_BeepBeep!_

Dash and Paulina shared a confuse look. That had sounded like it came from outside and both could hear a running motor as though the car it came from was idling just outside.

Since it was her house, Paulina got up and peeked out the window. The GAV? Weren't Mr. and Mrs. Fenton still out of town? A closer look showed that the driver was that techno-geek Danny always hung out with. Suddenly realizing that Dash was still in her house, the popular girl waved for the loser to drive away. She didn't know what he was doing at her house, but she wasn't going to risk Dash finding out the truth. The loser should know better – it wasn't like Dash had hidden his car!

The loser pursed his lips and pointedly laid on the horn. Even sending her dirtiest glare his way didn't faze the idiot.

"Paulina?"

"I'll be right back, I just have to deal with something," she told Dash, grabbing her jacket and stomping down the front stoop.

"'Bout time you came out here!" Tucker scowled.

"Do you have a death wish?" Paulina hissed. She crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow at the loser who just stared back blandly, clearly unaffected.

"Lancer asked me to come get you."

This caught Paulina off-guard so much that she uncrossed her arms and her stance became far less hostile.

"He's okay?" she asked, embarrassed about how small and vulnerable she sounded, but needing to know anyway.

"Yeah," Tucker responded sympathetically. He really hadn't expected Paulina to care so much, given her past behavior, but he wasn't going to be a jerk and tease her about her concern.

"Come on, he wants you with him at FentonWorks, so he knows you're safe."

Paulina bit her lip.

Tucker rolled his eyes, "Dash can deal. Right now you need to just do what's right for you and I get the feeling that means seeing for yourself that Lancer's okay."

"What would you know?" Paulina snapped defensively.

"Danny's lab accident two years ago," Tucker rattled off simply. "I didn't believe he was okay until he woke up. It's not quite the same, but, well, I get it."

"Dash has been a better friend than you think," Paulina told him. It was strange defending him after what he did that morning but she knew it was the truth. He may have gone about it the wrong way, but she recognized now that he was just hurt and he could've just left her to her thoughts when he dropped her off.

"I'm going to bring Dash with me," she decided. "He already knows Lancer's going to be my step-dad."

Tucker's eyes widened in alarm. This was bad, very bad. "Uh, Paulina, I don't think that would be a very good – !"

"What are you doing here, Foley?" Dash demanded scowling at the techno-geek.

Tucker dropped his head on the steering wheel groaning at the situation. "Forgive me, man," he muttered to Danny, even though the halfa couldn't hear him.

"Fine! Dash can come," he relented. "But if you tell _anyone_ about what you're probably going to find out over there, I _will_ post every embarrassing photo I can find or fabricate of you all over the internet and send the worst of them to all your friends, got it?"

Dash and Paulina both recoiled from the threat, not doubting the geek for one second yet still shocked that he had it in him to say it.

"Got it," the jock and cheerleader acquiesced before climbing into the vehicle.

…FentonWorks…

"Mom?" Jazz finally spoke up. She had been in the Weapons Vault with her mother for fifteen minutes and had yet to broach the topic.

"Yes, dear?" Maddie responded absently as she tried to decide between two very similar ecto-guns.

"About what Mr. Gray said – "

"Sweetie, I'm sure it's just the stress of the situation," Maddie dismissed the information.

"No, Mom…it's not." Jazz sighed, turning to face her mother more directly and waiting for the older woman to do the same. Maddie, already back in her favorite jumpsuit, eventually put down the weapons and faced her daughter, not liking the delay but recognizing it as unavoidable.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Vlad is half ghost. I know it sounds impossible but it's _true._ Danny and I have both seen him transform. I – _we _held back, in Bairdan, when you asked why Danny and I hated Vlad. The truth is that he's been trying to kill Dad since before the reunion," Jazz divulged. "There's more to it than that, but I – it's Danny's story to tell, and I won't take that from him."

Seeing her daughter's distress, Maddie could feel the horror settling in. If Vlad really was the Wisconsin Ghost and he did harbor such ill-intent, who was to say her husband was still alive?

No. She _refused_ to think like that.

"All the more reason to get ready quickly," she asserted. "If Vlad thinks he's won, he has another thing coming!"

Jazz grinned victoriously as she watched her enraged mother prepare. Vlad would never know what him.

…

A/N: So, there you have it! The secret's out…partially. What did you think of the reveals? And Tucker's predicament? Tell me in a review, and as alwaysALOHA! Happy New Year!


	39. Women Scorned

A/N:_ Hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday season._← This just goes to show how hard I was hit with writer's block. Yuck!

Disclaimed.

…FentonWorks…

To say the drive to FentonWorks was awkward would be an understatement of monumental proportions. Tucker kept his focus almost religiously on his driving, determinedly ignoring Dash's attempts at interrogation. He just wished Dash wasn't so persistent! He knew Dash could be relentless, but this was getting ridiculous.

"Dash, just shut up!" Tucker finally shouted. "I am so not gonna tell you what the big secret is just because you _might_ figure it out. If there's any chance we can get through this whole mess without you finding out what's going on, then I'm going to take it. I let you come _only _because you stuck with Paulina instead of bailing on her like you A-listers usually do when things get serious. That's it. Nothing else. You're here as Paulina's support."

"I'm gonna wail you into next week if you don't tell me what's going on, Foley!" Dash growled from the back seat. He was sick of wondering what was going on with these geeks.

"I don't care," Tucker told him flippantly from the driver's seat as he pulled into the Fenton's driveway and parked. Dash and Paulina both gaped at him. They knew that Danny Fenton occasionally showed some defiance, but since when did Tucker Foley have the guts? "My loyalty is to _Danny_. Not you. Not the Casper High social ladder. I'm not telling you _anything._

Now, come on. I want to find out what's going on with my best friend and his family." With that said, Tucker got out of the GAV and headed into the house.

Paulina and Dash shared a look. Dash was incredulous and getting more and more freaked out the more he delved into the life of Casper High's loser trio. Paulina wished that Mr. Lancer had gotten around to telling her more before this, but didn't think too much about it. She was far more intrigued and, yes, awed by the loyalty Tucker had just shown to Danny. He was willing to take a beating from Dash just to keep his best friend's secrets. How many of her friends would do the same if someone came snooping around in her business? Sadly, no one really came to mind.

With nothing to say to each other, the two A-listers walked into the building.

…

"If Masters is really behind this, then we'll have to work with the local police. See if we can find some way to get a warrant," Lancer strategized.

Damon raised an eyebrow wryly. "Technically speaking, all we need to do is call the Guys In White."

Lancer scowled, "Technically. But those imbeciles are just as likely to attack Danny instead of Vlad. I don't trust them, especially not with their history. They once set off an ecto-bomb in the school pool! A _bomb,_ Damon! No, I won't involve them just yet. Not when there are other options."

"What about me?" Valerie suggested, raising an eyebrow as she leaned forward. "I could…."

"NO." Damon refused not even considering the possibility.

"I'm with your father on this one, Ms. Gray. It's too dangerous," Lancer finalized.

"Yeah? As opposed to what? A couple of secret-servicemen protected against bullets but completely vulnerable to ectoplasm? Mr. Lancer, I can get in there without rousing Vlad's suspicions. He knows me and thinks he can control me," Valerie argued. "On top of that, I know how to find Vlad's lab, do you?"

"VALERIE! That is enough!" Mr. Gray shouted, incensed. "You are not going, and that is _final."_

"Whoever said I was asking permission, Daddy?" she asked far too sweetly, just as angry and protective as her father. She stood up, her intentions clear to her father, though they remained a mystery to her teacher.

"Whoa, whoa! WAIT!" Tucker shouted as he walked into the kitchen. "You might want to rethink that, Val!"

Valerie spun around to face her friend with a nasty glare when she spotted the two people entering behind the techno-geek.

"Paulina? Dash? What are you doing here?" she asked momentarily distracted from her anger.

"Valerie?" her former friends responded, just as astonished.

Ignoring his fellow teens, Tucker addressed the older men, "Where are Sam and Jazz?"

Mr. Lancer didn't take his eyes off the confrontation in front of him even as he answered, "They're down in the lab helping Maddie decide on weapons."

Tucker nodded and headed for the door on the other side of the room.

"Oh, and Mr. Foley? Next time you know something dangerous about someone that is in near-constant contact with your best friend, tell someone."

Tucker grimaced at the level stare he was receiving from his friends' uncle, before turning and heading down to the lab.

…

"Wrist-rays, definitely have to have wrist-rays," Tucker heard the grin in Sam's voice. It really didn't surprise him since the wrist-rays were Sam's weapon of choice.

"I'm thinking of taking the Fenton Foamer," Jazz commented, "what do you think?"

Maddie raised an eyebrow as she packed a few surprises in her jumpsuit. Since when did these girls get so enthusiastic about ghost hunting?

"I'm kinda surprised," Sam responded, "I would've thought you'd go for the Peeler or the Jack-o-Nine-Tails."

Jazz smirked, "Oh, I'm definitely bringing those, _especially_ the Nine-Tails. But I feel like the Foamer would bring optimal levels of humiliation."

Tucker edged down the last few stairs warily.

"Oh yeah, Vlad is definitely going to feel the pain," Sam retorted with a nearly identical smirk.

"Uh, who left you girls down here with lots of weapons and no mercy? And why did no one invite me?" Tucker quipped. Danny was usually the level-headed person of their group and the one most likely to consider mercy. Too bad Danny was one of the two missing people.

"The Fruitloop is the one who took our mercy," Sam answered.

"We're just going to have to take him back, then won't we? Both of them," Tucker finished, grabbing a Fenton Bazooka and a Fenton Utility Weapon.

….

A/N: Eh, mostly filler I know, but I wanted to get something out at least. What did you think of Tucker's frustration with Dash and Paulina? Tell me in a review and as alwaysALOHA!

P.S. Sorry there was no Danny, Jack, and Dani, but I couldn't quite fit them in with the flow in this chapter. Next time.


	40. No Joke

Author's Excuse of the Month: Attack of the Killer Plot Bunnies!

Disclaimed.

…Walker's Prison…

"I'm Danny Phantom, Dad."

Jack opened his mouth to respond to what _had_ to be a joke but froze.

Danny stared anxiously at his father; why wasn't he moving or at least saying something? Maybe it was too much to reveal at once? After a moment, though, Danny's eyes narrowed as he noticed the way his father's eyes were moving from side to side. Carefully lifting Danielle off of his lap and setting her back on the floor Danny stood up to face the potential threat.

"Let him go," Danny ordered calmly. He wasn't slouched the way Jack normally saw his son, but stood with his shoulders back and his head held high. This wasn't Danny Fenton the slacker; this was Danny Phantom the hero. In that moment, Jack realized that his son's confession was no joke.

"And why would I do _that_, Daniel?" Jack's shoulders slumped at the sound and his face crumpled in the face of that betrayal, because he knew that voice all-too-well. Vlad. His best friend. His best friend who had a lab accident almost identical to Jack's son. Jack was a genius, but it didn't take one to put the pieces together.

"Vladdy," Jack muttered, "why?"

Vlad stepped out from behind the hulking mass of ghost hunter that had shielded him from Danny's view, holding a glowing pink knife ready to strike.

"Why?" Vlad laughed saracastically. The sound was harsh and devoid of all warmth. "Why would I want to kill the man that stole the love of my life and caused the accident that left me a social leper for the remainder of my youth? Why indeed."

Plasmius bared his fangs in an expression of deepest loathing that could easily be described as feral.

"And then I find out that you and Maddie have taken the children on an impromptu trip out of the country without so much as an explanation! I found out from another source that Daniel's uncle had died and the family had left for the funeral. Tell me, _Jack_, how it is possible that Daniel's uncle died when he doesn't have one? Unless of course you mean that imbecile that Maddie's atrocious sister divorced some years ago?"

"Vlad, stop." Danny commanded. Vlad studiously ignored the teenager as he continued to rant.

"Somehow I doubt it. Which means that you or Maddie lied to me about not having a brother. Which means that you betrayed me long before the accident that ruined my life! You asked me why?"

Vlad shook with his anger. "You. First."

Jack lowered his gaze in shame, because Vlad was right. He and Maddie had betrayed his trust first, no matter how justified they ultimately were. Vlad was their friend back then – he had to believe in that – and they had chosen not to trust him. Maddie hadn't made the decision alone. She'd talked to him about it on one of the dates they'd gone on in secret not long after meeting. He and Vlad had only been friends for maybe three months at that point and so when Maddie had asked him, he'd been unsure.

Perhaps he should have trusted his instincts more.

Danny looked between the two grown men warily. He wanted to step in, to use the distraction to disarm Vlad, but he was beginning to think that this was his dad's fight. Something that he needed to confront to fully accept that Vlad was no longer his friend.

"You're right, Vladdy," Jack finally uttered before lifting his eyes which now held a glint of steel in them. "I didn't trust you. I didn't trust you in those early days of our friendship and by the time that I did, it was too late. The damage was already done. But look at where we are, _old friend._ Turns out we were right."

Having said his piece, Jack moved faster than many would expect from a man of his girth, barreling into Vlad and pinning him against the wall disarming him in the process.

"Your beef is with me, Vlad!" Jack boomed. "Not Maddie, not my son or my daughter, ME!"

"Way to go, Dad," Danny muttered. It was almost like when Vlad was trying to steal the Fenton Portal and Jack had caught him attacking Danny – only so much better.

Still, Vlad had full access to all of his powers and Jack didn't have so much as his favorite jumpsuit for protection.

Danny crouched down ready to interfere.

….FentonWorks Kitchen…

"Paulina? Dash? What are you doing here?" she asked momentarily distracted from her anger.

"Valerie?" her former friends responded, just as astonished.

"I sent Mr. Foley to pick up Paulina," Mr. Lancer sighed. This whole situation was getting more complicated by the minute. Valerie's face twisted in confusion while her father raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not so sure this was the best time, Will." Damon started. "I know she was the one that found you but there's far more at stake here than one student's peace of mind. I would've thought you'd know that better than anyone."

Mr. Lancer sighed and glanced at his stepdaughter-to-be. The girl rolled her eyes. Even she got that there was no point in keeping this a secret anymore.

"He's marrying my mom," Paulina deadpanned. "What's going on?" she asked Will fidgeting. "What happened to you?"

Will frowned. "Danny was kidnapped by a ghost."

Both of his popular students' eyes widened. Ghost attacks were common in Amity Park, but abductions usually meant something more serious.

"I know you have your reasons for not wanting to, but don't you think we should bring in at least some of the others? If I remember correctly, the ghost you think it is doesn't work alone, and we know he has at least one powerful ally. We would be better off if we could divide into teams; one to the mayor's mansion and one into the ghost zone," Damon suggested. "We could cover more ground."

Lancer shook his head, "We may gain numbers but we'd lose two of our most effective fighters. I have no doubt that some of our agents report directly to… those that would use this situation to their advantage."

The head secret-serviceman grimaced as he realized what he'd almost revealed to one of his students. Dash's presence complicated matters.

"Mr. Baxter, why exactly are you here?"

"Huh?" Dash replied intelligently. The quarterback shook his head before giving a proper answer, having been surprise to have been addressed. "I came to help Paulina."

"Well, as much as I appreciate your willingness to support one of your friends, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"But Mr. Lancer – !"

"But Will – !" The other two teens turned to give Paulina weird looks.

"No buts, the situation is too sensitive at this point. I need to concentrate on organizing a search-and-rescue party for not only Danny Fenton, but his father as well, and I can't do that effectively while having to watch what I say."

"Valerie's here!" Dash protested.

"Because she is already well-informed of the situation by those with the authority to do so. You are not." Mr. Lancer explained firmly. "Now go."

Dash scowled as he stalked away, slamming the door behind him.

"You didn't have to do that," Paulina pouted.

"Yes, I did," Will said. "I'm sorry."

…

A/N: …I don't know where that came from. Tell me what you thought in a review and as alwaysALOHA!

P.S. Happy Easter! And no, this is not an April Fools joke.


End file.
